Recently I have had two divorce cases where the retired miliary spouse and his spouse declined coverage under the Survivor Benefit Plan. (You can read my article on the Survivor Benefit plan at https://therightdivorcesolution.com/articles/survivor-benefit-plan-and-military-divorce) In both cases it turned out to be a very bad idea, especially for the non-military spouse.
Monthly military retired pay is VERY generous (deservedly so), it comes with COLAs and may be paid for 30+ years. I will calculate the present value of that stream of income and often it has more value than all other marital property combined. The problem lies in the fact that the non-military spouse takes a huge risk in electing to take a share of the military pay as a trade for other marital property. Why? Because without a right to survivor pay, when the military spouse dies, her payments STOP, and that could happen days after the divorce papers are signed. In both of my cases, the military spouse was faced with the fact that he might get his retired pay but virtually nothing else. No savings, no IRA, no boat, no house.
As a CDFA, I often get cases where there are no good choices when it comes to dividing assets. But that is where my specialized knowledge and experience in military divorce come in. Both of my cases involved strong emotions and difficult financial choices. I worked with the spouses to come up with a solution that protected the non-military spouse and gave the military spouse some liquid assets so he could buy a house and have some savings.
