Divorce & Community Property

California is a community property state, which means that your former spouse or state-registered domestic partner may have a “community property interest” in the VCERA benefits you earned during your marriage or domestic partnership. A family law court will usually provide direction on how these retirement benefits shall be divided. It is critical that your court-filed judgment of dissolution or legal separation clearly identifies your VCERA benefits and how they will be divided among the parties. If a community property division is required by the court, VCERA requires a court-filed Judgment and Domestic Relations Order (DRO) to divide and pay benefits.

VCERA’s procedure for administering community property claims will depend on whether the DRO orders a member and former spouse to share a benefit or whether the member’s account will be split into two separate accounts, subject to the provisions of Article 8.4 of the County Employees’ Retirement Law of 1937, section 2610 of the Family Code, and VCERA’s Community Property Division Policy.

To ensure your court order contains the information required for VCERA to implement the terms of the DRO, VCERA’s General Counsel can review your draft language before it is finalized. However, this review is not a substitute for professional legal counsel. In addition, VCERA can supply a Community Property Valuation documenting the service credit and accumulated contributions you earned during the community property period. This information can be particularly helpful during the early phase of the dissolution proceedings. Lastly, VCERA staff can provide DRO templates to assist in your court filing.

VCERA’s Divorce and Your VCERA Benefits booklet is designed to assist parties involved in a dissolution of marriage, legal separation, or termination of a state-registered domestic partnership. For more information on the process of dividing community property, please contact VCERA.