Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) Pensions in Oregon Divorce
What to Know: Oregon PERS Pensions in a Divorce: The Short Version
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) offers defined benefit plans (known commonly as pension plans) that provide a monthly retirement income for life for city, county, and state employees. There are several tier levels, but all of the tiers share a common feature: monthly lifetime payments. This page discusses those monthly pension benefits.
PERS also has an Individual Account Program (IAP) that functions more like a 401(k) account from a private employer, but this page focuses on the PERS monthly lifetime pension benefit.
The two most common ways to divide a PERS monthly lifetime pension are variations of a deferred division:
- A "reduction award." is a benefit that begins when the member (the spouse with PERS employment) retires. The share belonging to the other spouse (known as the Alternate Payee, or AP) is based on the fraction of the member's PERS employment that took place during the marriage.
- In a "separate benefit award," a separate interest is created for the AP. The AP’s marital share is based on the amount of time that the member had PERS employment during the marriage, but the AP's interest is segregated from the member's account. The AP can elect to receive his or her own benefit at the member's earliest retirement age, regardless of when the member actually retires.
- The third option is to calculate the present value of the member's PERS pension and use that value to know how much of another asset the other spouse should receive in exchange for not taking a share of the pension. This option is fraught with uncertainty and other drawbacks, which Matthew can explain during your mediation sessions.
All PERS pension benefits in the name of either party must be addressed (or at least acknowledged) in Oregon divorce mediation, even if you do not intend to divide them. There are numerous advantages, disadvantages, and other factors to discuss about each of those options when you are in your mediation sessions.
Discovery for Oregon PERS Pensions: Information Needed for Mediation
- The annual statement
- The most recent account statement
- The PERS member history report.
Next Steps
Schedule a 90-minute in-person or Zoom introduction (first hour is always FREE)
or a 30-minute free "meet-and-greet" as soon as you're ready to begin mediation.