Over the years, you’ve probably accumulated a significant amount of wealth. In addition, your retirement assets have built up, giving peace of mind that you’ll be okay when you’re no longer able or willing to work. But all of that can come under threat when divorce is on the horizon. This can be especially true when you consider the fact that your spouse may wind up being entitled to a portion of your pension. Is there anything you can do in these circumstances to protect your pension and your future retirement?
How to protect your pension during divorce
While California is a community property state, meaning that the marital estate should be divided equally, you and your spouse can negotiate whatever kind of resolution you want so long as you both agree to it. This gives you an opening to find a way to keep your pension. Here are some tactics that may prove helpful as you attempt to do so:
- Identify other assets that are important to your spouse so that you can use them as leverage during settlement negotiations and can use them as a trade-off to keep your pension.
- Consider paying your spouse a lump sum in exchange for them foregoing your pension payments.
- Think about whether your spouse has their own retirement accounts that you can threaten that may motivate them to retain their own retirement accounts in exchange for allowing you to keep yours.
If you want to keep your pension, then your best bet is to find a way to negotiate a resolution that works for you. We know that can be challenging to do, especially if your spouse is being contentious, but there may be ways to develop a settlement negotiation strategy that protects your interests.
Are you ready to create a plan to keep your retirement assets?
If you’re retirement assets are important to you, then you have to develop a legal strategy that protects them during the property division process. Therefore, you can’t just blindly walk into your divorce and hope to secure the outcome you want. Instead, now is the time to get to work developing your divorce legal strategy in a way that allows you to effectively advocate for a fair and favorable resolution that protects your vision of the future.
