Voluntary Retirement Incentive Benefits
Whether voluntary retirement incentive benefits will be divisible depends on whether the payments are made by an employer based upon the employer’s pre-existing agreement with the employee or whether they are paid as compensation for future lost earnings (rendering the payments separate property. The determination of whether the payments will be classified as community property turns on what the employer’s intent was in providing the benefit, as well as the intent of the employee being terminated (In re: Marriage of Lehman, 18 Cal.4th 169 (1998)).
Copyright © 1999 Roy A. Barry, all rights reserved.