Important Limitations — Read Before Relying on These Numbers

• Taxes. Pension payments are taxable income. Your real after-tax monthly amount will be lower — how much lower depends on your tax bracket at the time you receive the payments.
• Survivor benefits. If you want payments to continue after your ex-spouse's death, a survivor benefit election is required. That protection costs a portion of the monthly benefit and is not reflected here.
• Separate property. Contributions made before the marriage or after the date of separation are typically the participant's separate property and should be excluded from the marital share. This calculator does not isolate those amounts.
• CalPERS and CalSTRS. California public pensions have their own formulas, their own rules, and require a Joinder to be filed with the court during the divorce — not after. The numbers look similar but the process and analysis are materially different.
• COLA and early retirement subsidies. Cost-of-living adjustments and enhanced early retirement benefits vary by plan and may significantly affect the real value of your share — and whether those increases are shared with you at all.
• Valuation date. The denominator in the coverture fraction (total projected service years) is disputed in some cases. Courts and attorneys sometimes use a different method, which changes the fraction.
• Plan-specific rules. Some plans use methods other than the time rule — including offset methods or separate interest approaches — that produce very different results.
• Legal documents required. Dividing a pension requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) or Domestic Relations Order (DRO) drafted by a qualified attorney and approved by both the court and the plan administrator. This can take months.