Military Benefits After Divorce in Annapolis

Retirement Pay, TRICARE, SBP & TSP Division for Maryland Military Families

When a military marriage ends, federal law governs what happens to retirement pay, health coverage, and survivor benefits in ways that most divorce attorneys never encounter. Each benefit follows its own eligibility rules, its own deadlines, and its own federal agency. At Law Office of Nicholas T. Exarhakis, we’ve spent more than 25 years representing both service members and non-military spouses in Maryland military divorces, helping families in Annapolis and across Anne Arundel County work through these determinations one by one.

Questions about how your divorce will affect your military benefits? Call us at (410) 593-0040 to schedule a free phone consultation.

Dividing Military Retired Pay Under the USFSPA

The Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act (USFSPA), passed in 1982, permits state divorce courts to treat military retired pay as marital property subject to division. It doesn’t require division; it allows it. Whether and how retired pay gets divided in a Maryland military divorce depends on state property law and the specifics negotiated or litigated in your case.

Any awarded share must be expressed as either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of disposable retired pay, which is gross retired pay minus allowable deductions. Two rules shape how that division is structured:

• The 10/10 Rule: A former spouse can receive direct payment from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) only when the marriage lasted at least 10 years, overlapping at least 10 years of creditable service. Below that threshold, the retiree pays the former spouse directly. DFAS won’t garnish the pension.
• The Frozen Benefit Rule: Under the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, a former spouse’s share is calculated based on the service member’s rank and years of service at the time of divorce, not at eventual retirement. A promotion or additional years of service after the divorce don’t increase the former spouse’s share.

Divorce filings for Anne Arundel County residents go through the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, where the judge applies Maryland property law within the federal framework the USFSPA establishes.

TRICARE Eligibility After Divorce: The 20/20/20 & 20/20/15 Rules

Whether a former spouse retains TRICARE coverage after a military divorce depends on how long the marriage lasted and how much it overlapped with the service member’s creditable service.

• The 20/20/20 Rule: An unremarried former spouse may keep full TRICARE coverage, along with commissary and exchange privileges, if the marriage lasted at least 20 years, the service member performed at least 20 years of creditable service, and those two periods overlap by at least 20 years.
• The 20/20/15 Rule: If the marriage lasted at least 20 years, the service member served at least 20 years, and the overlap is at least 15 years, the former spouse may receive one year of transitional TRICARE starting on the date the divorce is final. No commissary or exchange access follows that year.

Former spouses who don’t qualify under either rule, or who exhaust their transitional year, may purchase up to 36 months of temporary coverage through the Continued Health Care Benefit Program, subject to federal program requirements. Remarrying can cancel TRICARE eligibility under either scenario, even if that marriage later ends.

The Survivor Benefit Plan: A Separate Decision with a Hard Deadline

When a military retiree dies, retired pay stops unless a Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) is in place. The SBP is entirely separate from TRICARE eligibility and the 20/20/20 rule. A former spouse doesn’t need to meet any overlap threshold to be named an SBP beneficiary; what matters is that the divorce decree awards SBP coverage and that the election is properly filed.

The deadline is strict: the former-spouse SBP election must be submitted to DFAS within one year of the divorce under applicable federal rules. Miss that window, and the right may be lost, regardless of what the decree says. Once elected, former-spouse SBP coverage is generally locked in, and a retiree generally can’t switch the designation to a new spouse without the former spouse’s written consent or a court order relieving that obligation. Getting this election documented correctly in the decree and filed on time is one of the most time-sensitive tasks in any military divorce involving a military pension.

Thrift Savings Plan Division & VA Disability Compensation

Two additional financial pieces often arise in military divorces that are easy to overlook when retirement pay dominates the conversation.

Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
Service members can contribute to a Thrift Savings Plan, a retirement account that works similarly to a civilian 401(k) or IRA. The TSP is a separate asset from the pension and should be addressed separately in the property division agreement. Its value at the time of divorce can be meaningful and shouldn’t be left out of settlement negotiations.

VA Disability Compensation
Federal law prohibits courts from dividing VA disability compensation as marital property. Courts can and do count those payments when evaluating the service member’s overall income, though, which can affect alimony and child support calculations. The protection against division doesn’t remove VA income from the financial picture entirely.

Our Approach to Military Benefit Division

These determinations involve federal statutes, agency deadlines, and Maryland family law all at once. At Law Office of Nicholas T. Exarhakis, we work to resolve retirement pay division, SBP elections, and TSP allocation through negotiation whenever that serves our clients’ interests. Lead Attorney Nicholas T. Exarhakis works directly with each client rather than delegating to staff, and we deliberately limit our caseload to keep that access meaningful. For military families near Fort George G. Meade, the Naval Academy, or anywhere in the Annapolis area, that direct involvement can make a practical difference when federal deadlines are on the line.

Discuss Your Military Benefits with Our Annapolis Divorce Attorneys

Every military divorce affecting benefits is different. The overlap years, the branch of service, the stage of a military career, and the structure of the property settlement all shape what a former spouse may expect. We offer free phone consultations to help you understand where you stand before making any decisions.

Call Law Office of Nicholas T. Exarhakis at (410) 593-0040 or reach out through our contact form to schedule your free consultation today.