(0:00 – 0:45)
Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell, privileged to be joining Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, who’s the owner and managing partner of the esteemed Primus Family Law Group right here in San Diego. Bonnie, let’s do another Family Law Matters on a topic that I’ve got my, it’s been scratching, scratching my head about, and that is retirement accounts. This is under the heading of, I don’t wanna, meaning, I don’t wanna give him or her half my retirement account when we divorce.

Let’s talk about that. Well, if you’re going to start with, I don’t wanna, so I’m going to tell you what I will tell people who don’t wanna. Suck it up, buttercup.

(0:47 – 2:30)
I mean, now the reality, if you started your retirement before you got married, then whatever that was, and anything it grew to, is still separate property. Law doesn’t change. But what you contributed during the marriage, even if you were the one going to work, or you were the one getting shot at in the military, or you were the one who, you know, made all the sacrifices so that you could contribute, it doesn’t matter.

It’s community property. And upon divorce, half of the community share will get rolled over. You don’t have to withdraw it.

You don’t have to pay taxes on it. You just, it gets rolled over into a similar account for the other person. Now, if that other person has a retirement as well, well, obviously, you know, there’s offsets, right? It’s half of that one and half of that one, and they both get rolled over.

So, so both share half of their account with the other. It’s not like- You can do an offset, obviously. If one’s worth 100 and one’s worth 150, you only have to offset the difference.

What does that mean, offset? Well, just basic math. If one, if mine’s worth 100 and yours is worth 150, the difference between ours is 50. And I’m entitled to half of that.

You would have to give me, roll over 25 into my account. I didn’t want to do math because, you know, that can be confusing for a lot of people. So I was trying to avoid that, but you- Math is over my- Made me do that.

(2:30 – 2:57)
That’s over my head. I never did well in math. Okay.

So basically, the I don’t wanna doesn’t matter because the court’s going to protect people regardless. Yeah. Unless you have a prenup.

If you had a premarital agreement that said what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours, at least as it pertains to retirement, then that would be fine. Then it would be yours. And you help people write prenups as well, right? Oh, yes.

(2:58 – 3:31)
Yeah. So if people have questions, they want to talk with you more about this, whether it’s, whether it’s, I don’t want to share, guess what? You’re going to have to, or I want a prenup that protects me. How can they be in touch with you to get more information? They can reach us directly at 619-574-8000, or they can reach us online at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com. And you’ll get scheduled for a free 30-minute phone or Zoom consultation, and we’ll see how we can help you.