New York Divorce Report - New York's Divorce and Family Law Blog

Much has ado has been made of the pilots being sued by Continental Airlines because they divorced in order to get partial distributions of their pensions. As reported in Freakonomics: Continental Airlines is suing nine of its pilots, reports ABC News, claiming they faked divorces in order to draw down their pension funds before retirement. The airline became suspicious when some of the couples continued living together and all nine couples eventually reunited. Continental believes the pilots became worried about the safety of their pension funds, especially after seeing what’s happening at other airlines. The airline claims that the divorces... More

Equitably distributing pensions and retirement plans have become more expensive. According to the Divorce Law Journal, Fidelity and Charles Shwab are now imposing fees to process Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (“QDRO”). A QDRO is a court order that recognizes the right of the ex - spouse to receive all or part of a pension plan that belonged to their ex – spouse. The financial institutions can charge the processing fees so long as they are authorized by the retirement plan. Now, the parties not only have to negotiate the division of the pension and the cost of preparing the QDRO,... More