Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts
pension and retirement plans
First Issue: I was fully vested in a pension plan before I got married. Now that I am getting divorce I was told that I need to give of this plan to my EX. The company that I work for gave me this pension, I don't understand why I need to give my EX anything, can you explain the laws around this issue.second issue: I started a 401k paln 8 years before I got married. I now required to also split this plan with my EX.I wanted to know if there is something that I can do to proof to the court that he was not interested at the time to contribute to any retirement plan, only to now take what I worked so hard for away.
third issue: I have another pension most recently given to me from my employer. All three is the same issue.
The person I married was not a USA citizen, then later became a citizen. I got married in 01/95, and we got divorced on 10/3/2005. what is pending in court is the asset and pension plans. This man worked under the table and has never reported his income to the IRS, I in the other hand get a W2 every year and do the right thing. We have 3 multifamily properties that we are splitting. One of the property his sister is suing because she has lived there since 2001 and she feels that she deserves the hou
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: pension and retirement plans
Do you have a lawyer for the divorce? If you don't, explaining anything in this forum is not going to help. You need to get a lawyer before the hearing.
In a divorce, if the parties do not agree, the court will divide the marital assets according to general rules developed under a part of the divorce law. The longer the marriage, the more evenly divided everything is. It does not matter if he did not contribute directly to the pension plan. The assumption is that his contribution to the marriage assets allowed you to increase your contribution. You should have had a prenuptial agreement, but it is way too late for that.
His citizenship also does not matter.
If you knew he was working under the table, and benefitted from his not having deductions taken from his pay, you really cannot complain now that you are being penalized for letting it happen.
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