Under Texas Law, each legally married spouse, has a one-half interest in any community property from the marriage. Community property is money or assets that were acquired during the marriage that were not gifts or inheritances.

However, a Texas court is not required to give each side half. Texas law requires the court to make a just and right division of the property. In doing so, the court looks at whether there is evidence of “fault” in the divorce, whether there is evidence of wasting the community property by either party, and whether money is owed for reimbursement to either party as well as many other reasons.

Retirement accounts are very delicate areas because they have different methods or ways you get paid and different types of penalties you take for making a marital division. A qualified domestic relations order is carefully drafted by a competent and skilled attorney and is signed by a judge where a company is then commanded to distribute funds according to that order.

A skilled attorney must carefully evaluate all the settlement options for the client because sometimes an alternative settlement agreement is appropriate when there are other assets to divide and where there will be a major financial losses on both sides by dipping into the retirement.