amy55

I had just found out that my ex is retiring. He's a federal employee. I am entitled to a pro-rata share of his civil service pension, which will reduce my alimony by what I get from his pension. I am a civil service annuitant, which means that he will also be entitled now to a part of my pension.

Fictitious figures here. Lets say I am entitled to $1100. a month alimony. I get $1400 from his pension, and he gets $600 from mine. He would then still have to pay me $300 a month alimony. $1400 (his) minus $600 Mine. Leaves me $800. so then $1100 total alimony minus $800 = a differece of $300, that he will have to pay me.

No problem with this, it all works out.

The problem is he had the pension evaluations done (COAP) this is a court order approved for processing. We are to split the cost of it, he paid it, and I am to reimburse my share of it to him.

My ex will not communicate with me.

I received the pension evaluation, and its wrong. It doesn't matter to me now since I am entitled to the alimony till age 65, but after that I am only entitled to the pension.

This pension evaluation came back with he will get his pro-rata share of my "gross" pension, I will get my pro-rata share his "net" pension. Big difference here.

So he also got an attorney who then forwarded this info to the attorney that I used for my divorce. I have spoken to her about this, and she feels that I know enough about how these forms are supposed to be completed, (her firm does not do these), that I was the one who bought this to her attention, and she really doesn't want to take money from me to continually send out letters that go unanswered, that perhaps I should represent myself.

My questions here are

1. pension evaluators ---- Do they work for the person that hired them?

2. Even though he already paid them for both of us, instead of reimbursing him for my share of this, if I pay the pension evaluator for my share, ask them to reimburse him what he had paid for me, are they then also working for me, or is this like lawyers where you both need different ones if you have a conflict?

( the reason I am asking this is because if I get my own pension evaluator it will cost be $800. to do both )

I also feel that if I represent myself, it might end quicker, because by representing myself, I can send my own letters to his lawyer asking for information from him, and they will keep charging him, but can't charge me.

I have already tried to contact my ex by email, stating that I noticed an error and asked him if we could resolve this on our own without the added cost of lawyers.

Does anyone know about pension evaluators, or COAP's.

I have other questions but for now will leave it at this.

Thanks

amy55

To make it a little clearer, if they use this evaluation the way it stands now, I might only get $800 from his pension, while he gets $600 from mine, which would have me losing $600 per month at age 65 when the alimony stops, instead of $300 per month.

amy55

I was hoping to hear from some others that might have tried a post divorce tactic, when legal issues are still outstanding, by saying I'm not going to take this anymore, and I'm not paying for this anymore, until or unless I need a lawyer for contempt of court, where in that motion you file that you want him to pay for all of this unnecessary stuff, that he is trying to get you to pay for, so that he can beat you down again.

I just wanted to know if this was something that I could do by myself.

Charmed3

Hey Amy, I wish I could answer your question but the closest I can come is that my attorney sent our retirement docs to an actuary. Everything was based off the gross and the amounts I was entitled to were based off the years we were married. It seems odd to me that this would have been done with your gross and his net. It's not apples to apples and sounds like a glaring error.

My first thought was maybe you should contact the actuary / pension evaluator and ask if this was an oversight. But it seems reasonable to contact his attorney directly and ask. To me it seems wrong.

There is also a legal website that you may get an answer from. Your name and email are not included when you post a question. Avvo.com - The right attorney makes the difference Make sure your subject line is clear such as divorce pension evaluation procedures or something like that. Then in the body of the message explain what you explained here. You can also search legal advise to see if someone else has asked a similar question. I have asked questions here before and got some really good answers.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

amy55

Actually I did find avvo yesterday. I left that question there. I also left a question about my part time service under csrs, and if it had to specifically mention I was part time and to use only the creditable service months.

This stuff is really weird to me, and I don't mean the comps. (computations). That was my job when I worked for the gov.

What I was thinking of doing was to most likely go to in person to this pension evaluator. Ask him or her the questions that I had, also including part time employment which would lower his percentage of check that he would be entitled to. Then when I got the answers I would mention the case number and tell them to look at that again, and since I am there and personally handing over my share of the cost of this, that I want it done right on the first try or I will report to them to whatever board it is that I can report them to.

I also have plans in motion, that if any of this is not carried out, I will contact my lawyer again for contempt of court. There are other issues.

Charmed3

Personally I would go directly to the pension evaluator and ask why they aren't using apples to apples and offer them the out for an excuse of maybe it was an oversight. But I don't think I would hand over any money until they reviewed what they have done. If they are "working for him" and you disagree and need to hire someone else for a second opinion it would be better to spend your money on your own evaluator. If they agree they made a mistake a review it and use gross or net for both of you, then it seems fair to pay your share to them.

Charmed3

Glad your checking avvo. It took up to 5 days to get a good response. The first 2 were right away but not much help.

amy55

Other issues are:

His pay check is being garnished now. ok, but him retiring I am dealing with the government. OPM. I know how slow they are, I also worked for the gov.

Papers for his retirement are not submitted until the day after he actually leaves. It can take rabout 4 months or more for me to get anything.

I can't garnish a check if he is not getting a check.

I also signed off of survivor benefits in lieu of a life insurance policy to cover benefits payable according to to life expectancy charts. Which means he was ordered to have at least $500,000. policy with me as beneficiary. He did have that, at age 60 though, which he will attain in Aug 2014, that is capped at $250,000

I think I might be getting too technical here.

The things that I mentioned are in my divorce decree. This is the stuff that I might have to take back to court for contempt.