Graham.Law Blog

Retirement Must Be Divided As Property In a Colorado Divorce Retirement is property, and if earned during the marriage, the pension is part of the marital estate to be divided upon dissolution of marriage per . It’s easy to conceptualize the division in the case of IRAs, 401(k)s and other defined contribution pensions which…

The Colorado Court of Appeals just held that deferred compensation payments from an employer to a non-qualified plan (i.e. it’s not a retirement account under ERISA) do not count as income for purposes of child support. N.J.C. In the N.J.C. case, the father was a cardiologist, who earned a salary of $150,000/yr, plus…

Rent is income – that’s pretty clear. The IRS requires you to declare rental income received on a Schedule E, and the Colorado child support statute’s definition of income includes “rents”. (5)(a)(I)(J). The maintenance statute has a similar provision. (8)(a)(I)(J). And Colorado courts will impute income to people who are voluntarily under-employed and…

Does the GI Bill BAH count as income for the purposes of determining maintenance and child support in a Colorado family law case? The answer is yes – but only the GI Bill BAH, not the tuition assistance or the book/supply stipend. This is a rare “case of first impression”…

Each spring, family law attorneys in Colorado hold our collective breaths waiting to see what bills emerge from the Colorado assembly that affect divorce and family law. This year, our patience was rewarded with House Bill 19-1215, signed by Governor Polis on May 23, 2019. The act makes several changes to…

Lottery and Divorce – Impact on Alimony & Child Support Exhibit one in for lottery and divorce issues. The Huffington Post has an article this week entitled Woman Asks Ex Who Won Mega Millions Lottery: Can I Stop Paying Alimony? During the marriage, the wife had been the primary breadwinner, and was ordered to…

Stop Alimony After Retirement? Colorado law provides that a retirement after reaching the social security retirement age (which is currently 67 for those born in 1960 or later) creates a “rebuttable presumption” that the retirement is in good faith. (2)(b). While this presumption definitely favors the payor, that is not the same as stopping…

What Is Income in Context of Social Security and Child Support Payments? It is probably not surprising that the largest government benefit program in history will have a bunch of different types of payments, some to parents, some to children, which test the ability of Colorado’s child support law to…

Effective January 1, 2019, the minimum wage in Colorado has increased from $10.20/hr to $11.10/hr. For those of us imputing income to a parent or spouse with minimal work experience, that means we now use a figure of $1924/mo for a full-time 40-hour week. Per the voter-approved Amendment 70, minimum wage will…

If it’s almost January, it’s almost time for the military’s annual pay raises. On Friday, December 14, the Pentagon announced the new 2019 rates for BAH, the military’s Basic Allowance for Housing, and it’s a 2.5% increase. This increase is in addition to the previously-announced 2.6% annual pay raise for 2019 included in the…