10 Sep Can my ex’s new wife get his pension?

Q. I was married to my ex husband for 31 years. He left and got remarried. Will his other wife be able to collect his pension? He had my name down for it during our divorce.
— Concerned

A. We’re sorry you’re facing this question now.

The specifics of your divorce will matter.

“The question really is are you going to be able to collect on your ex-husband‘s pension,” said Jeralyn Lawrence, a family law attorney with Lawrence Law in Watchung. “Whether his current wife can should not impact your ability to collect on the marital portion of the pension.”

Lawrence said the first place you need to look is at your divorce settlement agreement to see what that document provides about the equitable distribution of the pension.

“Assuming the pension was acquired during your extremely long-term marriage, it would be an asset that is subject to equitable distribution and addressed and allocated for in the agreement,” Lawrence said.

She said after the execution of the agreement and the entry of the final judgment of divorce, there likely was a court order entered. That order is called a qualified domestic relations order, or QDRO.

“That order should have then been served on the plan administrator of the pension, which would carve out your share of the pension,” she said. “As such, when the pension goes into pay status, you would then receive your share of the pension directly from the plan administrator.”

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This story was originally published in August 2024.

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