Military Retired Pay is a type of divisible retirement plan. Because ERISA does not govern it, it requires different orders than a standard QDRO – it requires a set of orders given through DFAS, with a number of additional forms to be submitted with it. Most important is the determination of whether the DFAS orders are for support or a property interest. The difference in checking the support v. property interest is large because support can terminate (when the children turn 18, by the death of either party, a party’s remarriage or if the Judge gives a new order). A property division means that the MRP is split into two separate property interests. Hugely important to your long-term future. The Spousal Benefit is equally important are requires planning and thought.
Some new caselaw tells us that a Member’s MRP that is waived in exchange for later disability pay cannot be divided and the Court may not order the disabled member to pay extra for waived MRP. What that means is that the Court – your divorce decree and your orders – need to account for the fact that the nonmember spouse may lose a sizable chunk of their property right if MRP is later partially re-categorized as disability pay. You may not be able to even imagine it now, but at some later point in your career, losing a portion of your fixed income could come at a steep and unpredictable price. The documents must take this into account.
Dividing MRP takes a little more work than the most basic QDRO and so we charge a little bit more for it: $750. We can turn these around in 7 business days, and so we offer the same money back guarantee, with the same caveat, that if you want to have pre-approved documents, we charge an extra $100 for paralegal time in negotiating with DFAS, and cannot guarantee any timeframe for delivery (because we are waiting on DFAS). Most of the same issues above still apply, and we keep the advocacy pricing the same even though the MRP division document is a little more costly. In other words, any advocacy document is $1,000, the basic QDRO is $500 and the DFAS document is $750.
