Graham.Law Blog

Yet again, a spouse at divorce who merely asserted a claim for separate property in a divorce lost because he did not actually submit evidence to prove the separate property claim based upon premarital employment. Colorado law provides that upon dissolution of marriage, the court “shall set apart to each…

Dividing a pension and divorce – often a retirement is one of the most valuable assets at divorce, and under Colorado’s marital property laws, a pension is subject to division at divorce. But what happens if there is a miscalculation in the pension at divorce? Normally, retirement account misstatements would…

The last time we wrote about PERA was during the Covid pandemic, when the deadline to submit orders was temporarily lifted. And now, this is one of those cases where the PERA Co-Beneficiary statute seems clear enough that I’m surprised it was litigated all the way up to the Colorado…

It is unusual for the Colorado Court of Appeals to issue two different decisions in the same case, in the same year, on completely different issues. But that’s what happened to the Coplins. This new case concerns how to handle an account value increase, while back in March 2020, the…

PERA DROs – Simple & Frustrating A silver lining thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic? Preparing DROs (domestic relations orders) to divide Colorado state pensions has long been an exercise in frustration. The forms are deceptively simple – they are fill-in-the-blank, so seemingly have very little room for error. But the…

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…

FERS and Military Retirement Service Credit The Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) pension vests at five years: “an employee or Member must complete at least 5 years of civilian service creditable under section 8411 in order to be eligible” for the FERS annuity. 5 U.S. Code § 8410. Moreover, a federal…

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…