Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

In Washington, when a marriage ends, the law presumes that you are entitled to one half of each other's retirement accounts that were earned during the marriage. So yes, you are entitled to this. Usually, we use an actuary to calculate your share of his retirement if some was earned prior to marriage and some after the date of separation.

You may also be entitled to ask for spousal maintenance (the legal term for alimony in Washington), depending on the facts of your case. I highly recommend that you use counsel if at all possible to represent you, not so much because of the retirement account issue, which is very important, but mainly because of the child support and parenting plan issues that are inevitably going to come up. You'll want to make sure you get these two right the first time, particularly if trouble ever comes up down the road at a later date.