Divorce and Your VRS Benefits

A defined benefit plan provides a fixed, pre-established monthly lifetime benefit at retirement, with a cost-of-living adjustment evaluated annually, based on a Code of Virginia statutory formula. Assets in a defined benefit pension account cannot be divided in a divorce until you retire except in the case of a refund. The dollar amount, or percentage, that a former spouse, also known as the alternate payee, may be awarded in a divorce settlement depends on several factors but is based primarily on the number of years you were married while accruing service under the defined benefit plan.

A defined contribution plan is a savings plan with contributions made by you and your employer (if applicable), plus the earnings or losses from the investment of those contributions. A defined contribution account does not provide you with a monthly lifetime payment unless you use your account balance to purchase an annuity at retirement. Assets in a defined contribution account can be divided at the time of divorce without penalty to you, even if you are still actively employed or are younger than the IRS distribution age (59½).

The marital share is usually expressed as a percentage or fraction. The marital share is the amount of VRS service credit (in months) you earned or purchased during the marriage up until the date of last separation, divided by the total amount of service credit (in months) earned in your career. Example: A member works for 30 years (360 months) while married for 15 years (180 months). The marital share is calculated as 180 months divided by 360 months, which equals 0.5 (or 50%).

If you work one to three years beyond the date you qualify for unreduced retirement benefits, you may be eligible for a Partial Lump Sum Option (PLOP) upon retirement. The amount of the PLOP payment will reduce your total retirement benefit by an actuarially determined amount. Your former spouse will receive a prorated amount of the PLOP unless you select Option 3 (a fixed dollar amount per month) on the ADRO defined benefit form.

Cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) assist with rising costs during retirement. The COLA is based on a statutory formula. During years of no inflation or deflation, the COLA will be 0%. COLAs, if any, will be proportionately applied to both your benefit and your former spouse’s monthly benefit unless you select Option 3 (a fixed dollar amount per month) on the ADRO defined benefit form.

If you retire with at least 20 years of hazardous duty service credit, you may be eligible to receive a hazardous duty supplement to your retirement benefit. The supplement is a dollar amount added to the monthly defined benefit payment. It continues until normal Social Security retirement age for state police officers and political subdivision employees eligible for enhanced hazardous duty coverage. The supplement continues until age 65 for eligible VaLORS members under the 1.7% multiplier. VaLORS members under the 2.0% multiplier are not eligible for the supplement. The supplement is included in the division of the monthly retirement benefit in accordance with an ADRO.

As a VRS member, you can elect to receive a lower monthly retirement benefit during your lifetime so that your survivor can receive a monthly benefit after your death. You can name any living person as your survivor, and you can also name more than one survivor. When electing the survivor option, you will choose a whole percentage of your VRS benefit, between 10% and 100%, to go to your survivor. Your benefit amount is based on this percentage, your age and the age of your survivor at retirement. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements may limit the percentage that can go to a non-spouse survivor. If you’ve retired and received your first VRS benefit payment before an ADRO is filed, the choice of survivor option on the ADRO defined benefit form does not apply. Once you retire, you generally cannot change the survivor option except in limited circumstances.

When a defined contribution plan account is divided, the parties may choose to include gains and losses in the calculation of the former spouse’s distribution, to the extent possible based on information available to VRS. When including gains and losses, the defined contribution plan account is valued as of a certain date, called the valuation date. The amount awarded to the former spouse will account for the investment gains or losses in the account from the valuation date through the date the account is officially divided, known as the division date. Due to TIAA’s policy on the administration of ADROs, TIAA will not perform gain/loss calculations. Accounts administered by TIAA will only be valued as of the “Date of Transfer.”