November 4, 2009 – 10:49 am
Question
My husband and I are divorcing after 18 years of marriage. I stayed at home with our kids for nearly eight years, and even after I went back to work I never made nearly as much as he did. We are dividing our other retirement accounts, but our divorce decree says nothing about social security. Am I entitled to some of his social security, and do I lose this if it is not mentioned in the decree?
Answer
You may indeed be entitled to higher Social Security benefits based on your ex-spouse’s earnings; and it is not necessary to put this provision in your divorce decree.
Social Security Administration rules allow many lower-earning ex-spouses to receive higher benefits based on their ex-spouse’s higher incomes. The current rules require you to have been married for at least ten years; to be currently unmarried; to have been divorced for at least two years and to be at least 62 years old. Your ex-spouse needs to be retired, eligible to retire, or deceased.
These additional benefits are not paid automatically. Your local Social Security Office can tell you how to apply. In general, your benefit will be greatest if your ex-spouse has died, but any divorced person who was the lower earner during a marriage of at least 10 years should apply.
Generally Social Security benefits are not mentioned in divorce decrees at all, since their payment depends on SSA rules, rather than court orders.
For more information, see “If you are divorced” from the Social Security Administration.
November 3, 2009 – 3:03 pm
This quiz examines some of the considerations that a court addresses when determining whether to make significant changes to a Parenting Plan, such as by ordering that a child move from living primarily with one parent to the other.
In Washington custody cases, the court’s top priority is promoting a child’s “best interests.” Another lesser, but still important…
October 26, 2009 – 4:23 pm
Question
When our child support order was entered a few years ago, I was ordered to pay my ex a certain amount each month for our kid’s day care – in addition to what I pay for child support. I suspect that my ex isn’t actually spending that much on care for our children anymore – what can I do…
October 15, 2009 – 3:19 pm
Question
I’ve lived with my boyfriend for over ten years, are we in a common law marriage?
Are these two "married"?
Answer
No – not if you and your boyfriend live in Washington. Eleven states recognize “common law marriage”, but Washington is not one of them. “Common law marriage” is a a legal status given to some…
October 1, 2009 – 11:24 am
This is the second part of our two part quiz on community property and a spouse’s liability for injuries caused by his or her spouse to another individual. In the first part of this quiz, we looked at how a court determines whether or not the community should be liable for a tort (i.e., civil wrongdoing) committed by…
September 23, 2009 – 2:39 pm
Last week we discussed whether or not a spouse can be criminally liable for damaging his community owned property. We’re continuing on the theme of community property with this two-part pop quiz. Today we ask if community property (that is, property jointly owned by spouses) can be collected by a victim in cases where one spouse has…
September 16, 2009 – 10:55 am
As we discussed in a previous article, Washington is a community property state. This means that, in this state, most property that a couple acquires during their marriage is considered to be the property of both spouses. So any given piece of property, from a car to a condo, that a married person buys is generally considered to…
September 10, 2009 – 11:40 am
The case of “JMK”
This pop quiz involves a particularly interesting, and occasionally absurd issue in family law – the question of how the courts determine exactly who is the parent of a child.* This probably seems like a simple issue to resolve, especially now that a DNA test can determine genetic relationship with virtual certainty.
However, the…
September 1, 2009 – 7:08 am
Luckily for Aleki Taumoepeau, a New Zealand man, love might be bottomless but the ocean is not. Over a year ago, Aleki, a newly-wed ecologist, was conducting an environmental sweep of the Wellington harbor when he accidentally dropped his wedding ring into the water. His wife Rachel remembers:
“It flew off into the air and everyone on
…
