When military officers and their spouses get divorced, as a general rule, the non-officer spouse can claim a portion of the officer’s retirement benefits as community property. Generally speaking, income that either spouse earns during the marriage is considered community property (and therefore subject to division in a divorce), and this includes military pensions and other retirement benefits. In fact, the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act (USFSPA) specifically provides that state courts have the authority to divide military pensions in a divorce.

If you have children and are preparing for a divorce in Texas, you can generally expect that either you or your spouse will come out of your divorce with an obligation to pay child support. Child support is the one aspect of a divorce where separating spouses have the least flexibility; and, as we previously discussed, payment of child support is a requirement in most Texas divorces.

If you are like most people, when you think about estate planning, you think about how you want your assets to be distributed after your death. While distributing your assets is undoubtedly one of the primary purposes – and perhaps even the primary purpose – of having an estate plan, it is by no means the only reason why it is important to have an estate plan in place.