MILITARY RETIREMENT: Anderson Boback & Marshall tries a case in the Circuit Court of Cook County that has not been addressed by Appellate Court or Illinois Supreme Court:
When a member of the military earns points as a member of the Reserves, the division of retirement pay is different than the division of “regular” military retirement pay.
Illinois divides retirement that is accumulated by the passage of time by a certain formula known as the “Hunt” formula. This allows the court to divide the retirement that was earned during the marriage. If you earned a pension after working for 30 years for an organization and were married for 25 of those years, 25/30 (or 83.3%) of that pension is marital. The court will consider 83.3% of the pension “marital” and divide that portion between the parties.
However, our firm recently represented a member of the Reserves who was in the military for 30 years and married to his former spouse for 25 of those years, he only earned 46% of the points during the married. Our position was that the former spouse was not entitled to 50% of 83.3% of his retirement but only entitled to half of the 46% or 23% of the military retirement pay.
The Court ruled in our client’s favor and awarded the former spouse 50% of the points earning during the marriage and not 50% of the military retirement pay according to the “Hunt” formula. The court pointed out in its ruling that this particular issue has not been addressed by Illinois Appellate courts or the Illinois Supreme Court.
