What happens to my military retirement benefits when I get divorced?

In some cases, military retirement benefits are required to be divided between the parties. There are lot of rules and regulations that have to be followed and understood prior to this taking place. The threshold question one must ask is whether or not the military retirement is a marital asset. Frequently, a portion of a military retirement is a marital asset and a portion of it is a non-marital asset. Non-marital assets are retained by the owner of the asset. Marital assets are subject to being divided which means you usually equally between the parties. There’s the next issue which is, is that to be a payment made when received by one spouse to the other, or is it divided by the military retirement pension fund itself and pay the both parties? This is a relatively complex area of the law which in Tampa, Florida is relatively common since we have MacDill Air Force Base here, but you need to talk with an attorney in order to determine which part, if any, of your military retirement pension is potentially subject to being divided between yourself and your spouse.