Retirement accounts are often an issue in the process of a divorce or legal separation. For those people who have CalPERS accounts and want to place a hold or freeze the account during the family law case CalPERS accepts several different types of “Claims” to do so. Once CalPERS receives a claim on a member’s account, a hold in placed on it until the community property issue has been resolved. Below is a general list of the types of claims CalPERS accepts.
A Joinder: This is a very common method of claiming an interest on a CalPERS account. This is a set of court documents that are completed and filed with the court. It formally brings CalPERS into your family law case, and then, once served on CalPERS official notifies CalPERS of this claim.
A Written Claim: This is a letter to the CalPERS community property unit, typically from one of the parties of a family law case or their attorneys. The letter is a formal notice telling CalPERS that there is the possibility of a community property interest to be awarded to someone other than the account holder.
A Proposed or Filed Order: This is usually a divorce judgment. One party may be awarded a portion of the other’s CalPERS account. This typically does not serve as a CalPERS QDRO, but does inform CalPERS of entitlement to an account. Learn more about family law judgments compared to a CalPERS QDROs here.
Removing a claim: In some cases the parties or court may determine not to award a portion of a CalPERS member’s account to the other party. The hold on the CalPERS account resulting from the claim can then be removed.
If you are ready to divide a CalPERS retirement plan, you don’t need to struggle through the process. We are a professional and experienced team to handle your CalPERS QDRO from start to finish and we are here to help. Our complete and straightforward service gets you from start to finish without having to worry about any of the details that go into a CalPERS QDRO.
The information provided in this article is not intended, nor should be taken as legal advice. The information provided is a general procedural overview and may not always reflect the most current regulations and requirements as they often change with CalPERS and the California Courts. We are bonded and registered Legal Document Assistants and only provide self help legal services at your specific direction.
