BONUS EPISODE: The Process of Pension Property Division During Divorce for Federal Employees

This episode was previously released in 2020, but we wanted to rerelease this episode coinciding with Jessica Markham’s book release of, Representing Federal Employees and Their Spouses, a Practical Guide.

Meet Jessica Markham, a family lawyer that practices in Maryland and Washington DC. She has many honors and awards to her and her firm’s credit including best lawyer in America and the best divorce attorney in the Bethesda area. She started her law firm about 5 years ago and is often sort after by federal employees going through a divorce.

In this episode of the Hightower Bethesda Divorce Series, Jessica joins Sarah as they scrap the surfaces of nuances of being a Federal employee going through a divorce. She’s best suited for this topic since she is in the process of publishing a 600-page book on the topic.

Listen in to learn different factors that apply when it comes to the division of pension property for federal employees during a divorce.

What you will learn:

Factors to consider when dividing in a divorce for federal employees.
What portions of the annuity is the spouse entitled to?
The legal formulas that are used to divide pension property- what it means and how other properties impact that.
Jessica explains how long a couple has to be married for the pension law to apply.
Why this law applies to govt employees that are living but don’t have to be working.
She explains in math how much a spouse or a surviving spouse gets in pension benefits.
How to understand and negotiate the survivor benefits and who pays the cost of it.
What is remarriage restructuring? How does it work in survivor benefits and pension law?
How different types of social securities affect the pension and why you have to keep these in mind when negotiating.
Why you need to think about the cost of living adjustments and supplemental annuity.