Divorce – The #1 Reason for Delayed First Retirement Checks

If you plan to retire soon and experienced a divorce or legal separation while working for a SCERS-covered employer, give yourself enough time to gather your divorce paperwork in advance of applying, as the longest delays in receiving initial pension payments are due to divorce issues.

Since 2023, retirement applications with divorce-related issues took an average of nine days longer to process. These cases can stretch over long periods of time—17% of retirement applications with divorce-related issues took more than two months to process, compared to 11% for applications without divorce matters to review.

Divorce can affect your SCERS benefit in several ways:

• Retirement benefits earned during the marriage may be considered community property.
• SCERS may require a court-issued Domestic Relations Order (DRO) to divide your account or direct future payments. SCERS offers model DRO language for your attorney or the court. Contact SCERS early in the divorce process for guidance.
• If you fail to update your Member’s Affidavit to reflect any change in beneficiary after divorce, your former spouse may remain eligible to receive death benefits—even if that was not your intention.

“SCERS is prohibited from processing retirement applications with unresolved divorce matters. It’s imperative that members submit completed divorce orders once they are finalized to ensure timely inception of retirement allowances,” said SCERS Chief Benefits Officer Keith Riddle.

For more information, review SCERS’ Marital Dissolution Policy at scers.gov/marital-dissolution-policy.