Valuing Teachers’ Retirement in Divorce: Not so Fast…

2021Guest BloggerMay 3, 2021Kentucky, KTRS, Kentucky Supreme Court, Social Security, Pension, Appeals, NPV, Social Security Offset

Ohio Case Law Roundup

2018Eileen ZellAugust 23, 2018Ohio, Coverture, Equitable Division, Expert, Avoiding Pitfalls, Tax, CR 60, Divorce, ERISA, Retirement, Offset, Military, NPV, O.R.C., OH, Survivorship, Tracing, QDRO, Family Law, Marital Property

Valuing KTRS Pensions in Divorce: Where Do We Go From Here?

How Does the Family Law Practitioner Properly Advise a Client in Divorce When One Party Participates in KTRS?

This blog post is based upon a topic I have researched over the past year, and am continuing to explore with the intention of ultimately submitting something more formal for publication. This post follows my general blogging trend. I present a problem – for instance, in this case arising from legislative and judicial ambiguity – and then submit to my reader a possible solution to chew on. It is a longer post than usual, and is not for the faint at heart. Venture at your own risk...

Recently, in Eden v. Eden, No. 2012-CA-000819-MR (Ky. App. 2014), the Kentucky Court of Appeals considered the proper classification and division of a Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System Pension (“KTRS Plan” or “KTRS Pension”) in divorce pursuant to the governing statutes and regulations (see my blog post dated March 25, 2014). Although not directly at issue in Eden, because the participant was already retired and drawing his monthly retirement allowance, this author could not help but to be reminded of the uncertainty under state law when valuing, classifying, and dividing a KTRS pension in divorce.