I recently had a JAG major tell me that I was completely wrong in indicating that a servicemember's wife involved a divorce could obtain a division of the servicemember's Survivor Benefit Plan. That the SBP is divisable by the Court in a divorce, whether or not the servicemember agreed.
I was told that the U.S. Supreme Court has so ruled.
I can find no change in the regulations/CFRs or any U.S.Supreme Court decision of recent vintage making such a holding.
It appears that on reconsideration the position has changed. The current objection was that the request was not made until after the divorce. The divorce did not give the wife a right, and after the divorce, the wife has become a former spouse.
So what it is is an interpretation of what the divorce gave each party. In any case, there is only a time period of one year, post decree, to make the division.
