Opinion ID: 2549122
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Formula awards for divorces while the member is on active duty.

Text: Most of the problems with award language have arisen in cases where the parties were divorced while the member was still on active duty. In these cases, the former spouse's award is indeterminate since the member has not yet retired. Since the parties do not know how much longer the member will remain in military service after the divorce, a straight percentage award may not be suitable. Also, many States take the approach that the former spouse should not benefit from any of the member's post-divorce promotions or pay increases based on length of service after the divorce. These awards are often drafted in such a way that we cannot determine the amount of the award. This causes the parties to have to go back to court and obtain a clarifying order. A proposed regulation was issued in 1995 that allowed the use of formula and hypothetical awards to divide military retired pay when the parties were divorced prior to the member's becoming eligible to receive retired pay. [21] Although this proposed regulation has never been finalized, it still provides the basis for our review of these types of awards. A formula award is an award expressed in terms of a marital fraction, where the numerator covers the period of the parties' marriage while the member was performing creditable military service, and the denominator covers the member's total period of creditable military service. The former spouse's award is usually calculated by multiplying the marital fraction by ½. (A) For members retiring from active duty, the numerator is the total period of time from marriage to divorce or separation while the member was performing creditable military service. The numerator, expressed in terms of whole months, must be provided in the court order. Days or partial months will be dropped. DFAS will supply the denominator in terms of whole months of service creditable for retirement, and then work out the formula to calculate the former spouse's award as a percentage of disposable retired pay. All fractions will be carried out to six decimal places. For example, assume you have a marriage that lasted exactly 12 years or 144 months. The member serves for 25 years and then retires. Using the above formula, the former spouse would be entitled to ½ × (144/300) = 24.0000% of the members disposable retired pay. The following language is an example of an acceptable way to express an active duty formula award: The former spouse is awarded a percentage of the member's disposable military retired pay, to be computed by multiplying ____% times a fraction, the numerator of which is ____ months of marriage during the member's creditable military service, divided by the member's total number of months of creditable military service. (B) In the case of members retiring from reserve duty, a marital fraction award must be expressed in terms of reserve retirement points rather than in terms of whole months. The numerator, which for reservists is the total number of reserve retirement points earned from marriage to divorce or separation, must be provided in the court order. [22] DFAS will supply the member's total reserve retirement points for the denominator. All fractions will be carried out to six decimal places. The following language is an example of an acceptable way to express a reserve duty formula award. The former spouse is awarded a percentage of the member's disposable military retired pay, to be computed by multiplying ____% times a fraction, the numerator of which is ____ reserve retirement points earned during the period of the marriage, divided by the member's total number of reserve retirement points earned.