If you are facing the unfortunate situation of divorce, amidst all of the tough decisions being made, you might be wondering how your assets will be divided. While you may already know that in the state of Florida assets are divided equally in most divorce cases, what most don’t know is whether or not retirement benefits are included in that division of assets.
In the state of Florida, retirement packages or benefits are in-fact included in the asset division during a divorce. The benefits earned during a marriage are eligible for equitable split during a divorce except for the following:
- Social Security payments
- Military injury compensation
- Disability awards from worker’s compensation
- Railroad retirement benefits
Otherwise, retirement benefits are usually divided in two ways: present-day valuation buy-out, or the division of benefits into two accounts. For present-day valuation buy-out, the spouse who is not earning the retirement benefits has the ability to trade the worth of retirement benefits for something else of the same value. This could be cash or other marital assets. It is an even trade between the amount of retirement they are entitled to and something else of their choosing. The second type of split of retirement benefits is an account-to-account split. During this instance, an official goes into the retirement benefit account and divvies up the amount equally between the two spouses.
The state of Florida recognizes retirement benefits that were earned during marriage as marital assets that are eligible for the equal split of assets. This falls under Florida’s law of dividing marital assets equally and fairly. If you are going through a divorce and are concerned about the division of your assets or retirement benefits, contact an attorney today.