I am actually writing for my Mother. She and my father divorced in 1976, a couple of years after he retired. The divorce states she is entitled to half the marital assets. It did not go into any more detail than that. My question is should she have been getting half of his retirement benefits all this time? They were married the entire time he was in the military. She is living off her social security $900.00 a month and the extra money would really make her life better and really wouldn't hurt my Dad.
I think she's entitled to 1/2 your father's SS pay by default (if they were married more than 10 years). Not sure if you have to ask for this specifically. If the divorce decree doesn't specifically state 1/2 the retirement money, I believe she could get a lawyer to get this enacted for her. I think she would be entitled to it. She could just try first on her own to get the retirement benefits (less costly than a lawyer).
From what I have heard if you don't have it in your divorce decree you don't get a cent. Course you could argue it in court to reopen your divorce case if you wanted to fight it, but I know you can't get it without being in the divorce decree. There was a case in Alabama where it was not in the decree and the wife didn't get anything. I would get a military divorce lawyer and get a consult that would cost about 200.00. Mark Sullivan in NC wrote the book Military Divorce I would get a copy of that and maybe consult with. He is in NC.
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