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Alarming Facts about Federal Pensions and Exes

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  • Alarming Facts about Federal Pensions and Exes

    I attended an info session at my workplace (federal government) yesterday about our pensions, and learned some surprising things I have to share, as there are no doubt other federal public servants on here, and there may also be people with pensions that have similar rules.

    First: the Pension rules supersedes court orders. An ex-spouse can always apply to the federal government for a 50-50 split of pension (from the portion during the relationship), no matter what else may have been agreed to and is written into the separation agreement or court order. So if you did not split your pension (doing something like one spouse gets the house and the other keeps the full pension or whatever), the ex can come back (years later - there is NO time limit) and get the pension split anyways! You then have 90 days to prove that the ex got the equivalent of their share by some other means. So from my previous example, if the house share and the pension share were not perfectly identical, you could be out more pension than you expected. YEARS later. So it's really like child support in that you can't negotiate out of it in a separation agreement.

    Second: when you die after retirement, and were separated but never divorced, your ex is entitled to 50% of your remaining pension. It doesn't matter what you put in your separation agreement or even in your will. It will not be honoured. If you have subsequent common-law spouses but never bothered to divorce the previous one, they each get a proportion of that 50% based on how long each relationship lasted. So if you had an ex-spouse of 20 years when you were young, and a common-law of 5 years before you died, the ex-wife would get 40% of the survivor pension, and the new spouse only 10%. And I stress again, this apparently supersedes whatever you put in a LEGAL will.

    Third: you only have to be common-law for a year before you qualify for that half the pension split. The facilitator told of a horror story where one gold-digger would cohabitate with some poor sap for a little over a year, break up with them, apply to the government for half their pension for that year, then move in with the next dupe. Now that's some forward thinking as none of the money would be available till retirement, but crikey! Apparently this will also supersede any cohab agreement.

    So the lessons are:

    Keep your separation documents that prove the pension was accounted for in equalization handy for the rest of your life.

    Don't delay the divorce after separation any longer than you must.

    Don't live with anyone who doesn't have an equivalent pension to yours.

  • #2
    Hmm maybe I should reconsider the whole divorce thing... I agreed for ex to keep her pension in lieu of the house.

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    • #3
      My name says it all...Been there!
      When ex left I agreed to give her what ever we made on the house in exchange she wouldn't go after my federal pension, a few months later I get a letter from her lawyer telling me she was going for it. Ex's excuse was "I did it for my child". yeah right.
      This was back in the 90's, I had no idea I could challenge it, ended up going bankrupt by the time she was finished.
      In the end she may have got a few yrs of my pension but I ended up in a happy long term relationship and our D has found her way back to me (finally figured out mother is on the crazy train) Ex is just finishing divorce #2 and this time she got what was coming to her, whole lot of nothing, love that karma thing.
      Cheers.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Rioe View Post
        First: the Pension rules supersedes court orders. An ex-spouse can always apply to the federal government for a 50-50 split of pension (from the portion during the relationship), no matter what else may have been agreed to and is written into the separation agreement or court order. So if you did not split your pension (doing something like one spouse gets the house and the other keeps the full pension or whatever), the ex can come back (years later - there is NO time limit) and get the pension split anyways! You then have 90 days to prove that the ex got the equivalent of their share by some other means. So from my previous example, if the house share and the pension share were not perfectly identical, you could be out more pension than you expected. YEARS later. So it's really like child support in that you can't negotiate out of it in a separation agreement.
        This applies even if you are divorced? i.e. neither party asks for division of assets resulting in her getting the home & the belongings & then few years later she comes back for pension? at that time i think it would be impossible to go back and do an even split on the home & belongings etc.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by sahibjee View Post
          This applies even if you are divorced? i.e. neither party asks for division of assets resulting in her getting the home & the belongings & then few years later she comes back for pension? at that time i think it would be impossible to go back and do an even split on the home & belongings etc.
          Scary, isn't it? If you can't prove within 90 days that there was a division of assets that accounted for the value of the pension, the government will give your ex half your pension if she asks for it, even years later and post-divorce.

          If this is your case, you better gather some documentation proving the value of the house and contents she got, to have on hand just in case.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by beenthere View Post
            ........ but I ended up in a happy long term relationship and our D has found her way back to me (finally figured out mother is on the crazy train) Ex is just finishing divorce #2 and this time she got what was coming to her, whole lot of nothing
            Originally posted by oink View Post
            I guess with the stats floating around out the about second marriages, it's no surprise with your EX.
            So, based on the stats, should I be more surprised that the OP's 2nd go around worked or his EX's 2nd time at bat didn't work?

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            • #8
              Originally posted by oink View Post

              How does my stats comment come into this? There is a link I posted in another thread about second marriages.
              I simply asked if I should be surprised that the OP's 2nd marriage worked because, based on the stats, he had a good chance of hooking up with one of the "self-satisfying nutjobs is that can't see the trees from the forest".

              In other words, he is lucky that his new wife wasn't one of those who are just "out there looking for some other smuck to entice with SEX"

              Comment

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