If you spent years moving for military life, raising children or putting your own career on hold, divorce may leave you asking what happens to you financially and what happens with your children. After years of supporting your spouse’s military career, those concerns can feel personal.
Hawaii divorce cases generally follow Hawaii family law, but military service can add federal rules that may affect retirement, benefits and child custody.
What divorce can involve for you as a military spouse
Divorce can raise practical questions about your finances and your family. Some of those questions may include:
- Whether time away from work affected your ability to earn
- How your income compares with your spouse’s income
- Whether military retired pay may be divided in divorce
- What happens to military-related benefits after divorce
- How deployment or relocation could affect child custody
If military life affected your finances and family responsibilities during the marriage, those same issues may still matter in divorce.
Can career sacrifices affect divorce issues?
If military life required you to leave jobs, relocate often or spend years out of the workforce, you may worry about money during divorce.
In Hawaii divorce cases, courts may look at each spouse’s financial situation when deciding issues such as dividing property or awarding spousal support. If military life affected your income or career opportunities during the marriage, courts may consider that history as part of the bigger picture.
What happens to military retirement and benefits?
If military retirement built up during your marriage, it may be divided in divorce. You may have heard that you cannot receive a share of military retirement unless your marriage lasted at least ten years. That is not necessarily true. A shorter marriage does not automatically keep military retired pay out of divorce. The ten-year rule mainly affects whether the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) can send payments directly to you in some cases.
Some military-related benefits, including health care coverage, may end after divorce unless you meet specific federal rules. The length of the marriage and the time it overlapped with military service can affect whether some benefits continue after divorce.
What if you have children?
If you have children, military service can add custody concerns related to deployment orders or relocation. You may worry about parenting time or what happens if your spouse wants to move after divorce.
Under Hawaii law, courts decide custody based on the child’s best interests. Courts may also consider how military service affects parenting time or where a parent lives.
Military divorce can raise questions about your future
If you spent years supporting military life, divorce can raise questions about money, your children and what comes next. Military divorce can involve added issues related to retirement, benefits and custody. Learning how those issues apply to your situation can help you make decisions about the future.