Texas Military Divorce: What You Need to Know

A military divorce uses the Texas Family Code for the divorce itself, but federal statutes can control important issues involving military service, retired pay, survivor benefits, health eligibility, and federal retirement accounts. A Texas court may have authority to grant the divorce while a separate federal statute limits how a particular military benefit can be divided or paid.

Current-law notice: The federal military-benefit statutes summarized on this page reflect law available as of August 2026. Congress may amend these statutes. Eligibility and payment issues should be checked against the law in effect when an order is entered or implemented.

Texas Residency and Where to File

Texas Family Code § 6.301 generally requires either the petitioner or respondent to have been a Texas domiciliary for the preceding six months and a resident of the county of filing for the preceding 90 days.

Military service can affect how those periods are counted. Under § 6.303, time spent by a Texas domiciliary outside Texas or outside the county while serving in the armed forces or other public service, or while accompanying a spouse in that service, is treated as residence in Texas and the county. Under § 6.304, a person not previously a Texas resident who is serving in the armed forces and has been stationed at one or more Texas military installations for at least the last six months and at a military installation in the county for at least the last 90 days is treated as a Texas domiciliary and county resident for purposes of filing a suit for dissolution of marriage. The same provision applies to a spouse accompanying the service member for those periods.

Divorce Jurisdiction Is Not the Same as Military-Retired-Pay Jurisdiction

Meeting the Texas filing rules does not necessarily establish authority to divide military disposable retired pay. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1408(c)(4), a court may not treat a member’s disposable retired pay as property unless it has jurisdiction over the member because of: (1) the member’s residence in the court’s territorial jurisdiction for a reason other than military assignment; (2) the member’s domicile there; or (3) the member’s consent to the court’s jurisdiction. That federal requirement should be analyzed separately from Texas Family Code §§ 6.301–6.304.

Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act contains separate protections for a servicemember who has notice of a civil action and for a servicemember against whom a default is sought.

Under 50 U.S.C. § 3932, a civil action or proceeding, including a child-custody proceeding, must be stayed for at least 90 days on a qualifying application by a servicemember who is in military service, or within 90 days after termination or release from military service, if the statutory conditions are satisfied. The application must include a communication explaining how current military duties materially affect the servicemember’s ability to appear and stating when the servicemember will be available, together with a communication from the commanding officer stating that current military duty prevents appearance and that military leave is not authorized at that time. Additional stays may be requested under the statute if military duty continues to materially affect the ability to appear.

Under 50 U.S.C. § 3931, before a default judgment is entered in a covered action in which the defendant has not appeared, the plaintiff must file the military-status affidavit or declaration required by the statute. Section 3931 also contains protections concerning appointment of counsel, stays, and reopening certain default judgments entered during military service.

What Military Retired Pay Federal Law Allows a State Court to Divide

Texas Family Code § 7.003 requires a Texas divorce court to determine the spouses’ rights in retirement and employment benefits and other listed plans. Military retired pay, however, is subject to federal limits.

Under the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act, 10 U.S.C. § 1408(c)(1), a state court may, subject to the limitations of that section, treat disposable retired pay as property of the member or as property of the member and spouse in accordance with state law.

The phrase “disposable retired pay” is defined in § 1408(a)(4). The statute subtracts specified amounts from total monthly retired pay, including amounts waived in order to receive compensation under Title 5 or Title 38 and, for a member receiving Chapter 61 disability retired pay, the disability-based amount specified in § 1408(a)(4)(A)(iii). Accordingly, the federal authority to divide military retired pay as property is not authority to divide every payment a retired service member may receive.

The 10/10 Rule Is a Direct-Payment Rule

The commonly called 10/10 rule appears in 10 U.S.C. § 1408(d)(2). For the federal government to make direct payments of a former spouse’s property-division share under § 1408, the former spouse must have been married to the member for at least 10 years during which the member performed at least 10 years of service creditable in determining eligibility for retired pay.

That requirement concerns the federal direct-payment mechanism. The state court’s authority to treat disposable retired pay as property is addressed separately in § 1408(c), including the special jurisdictional requirement in § 1408(c)(4). Section § 1408(e)(1) also limits the total amount of disposable retired pay payable under property-division court orders under subsection (c) to 50 percent of disposable retired pay.

Pre-Retirement Divorce and the Federal Retired-Pay Formula

For a qualifying division of property that becomes final before the member retires, 10 U.S.C. § 1408(a)(4)(B) defines the total monthly retired pay used for the federal disposable-retired-pay calculation by reference to the member’s retired-pay base and years of service on the date of the decree, or reserve retirement points for a member covered by Chapter 1223, together with the cost-of-living adjustments specified by the statute. The statutory amendments establishing this framework apply to qualifying property divisions that became final after December 23, 2016, as stated in the statutory notes to § 1408.

Retired Pay Waived for Title 38 Compensation and Disability Retired Pay

The federal statute should be stated narrowly. Section 1408(a)(4)(A)(ii) excludes from “disposable retired pay” amounts deducted because of a waiver of retired pay required to receive compensation under Title 5 or Title 38. Section 1408(a)(4)(A)(iii) separately excludes the specified disability-based portion of Chapter 61 disability retired pay. Section 1408(c)(1) authorizes state-court property treatment only of disposable retired pay as federally defined.

For that reason, an order should not assume that gross retired pay, disposable retired pay, VA compensation, and Chapter 61 disability retired pay are interchangeable. They are not defined the same way under § 1408.

Survivor Benefit Plan

Payments from disposable retired pay under a property-division order do not continue indefinitely. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1408(d)(4), payments from disposable retired pay under that section terminate according to the court order, but no later than the death of the member or the spouse or former spouse receiving the payment, whichever occurs first. The Survivor Benefit Plan is a separate statutory annuity program under Chapter 73 of Title 10.

For a participant already providing spouse coverage, 10 U.S.C. § 1448(b)(3)(A)(iii) provides that an election to provide an annuity to a former spouse must be written, signed, and received by the Secretary concerned within one year after the date of the decree of divorce, dissolution, or annulment.

If the member is required by a court order or qualifying written agreement to provide former-spouse SBP coverage and fails or refuses to make the election, 10 U.S.C. § 1450(f)(3) permits a former spouse to request a deemed election and sets out the documents that must accompany the request. Under § 1450(f)(3)(C), the Secretary concerned must receive the former spouse’s deemed-election request within one year of the court order or filing involved. Section 1450(f)(4) expressly recognizes that a court order may require former-spouse coverage.

Former-Spouse Health Eligibility: 20/20/20 and 20/20/15

The statutory health rules are more specific than the shorthand labels suggest. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1072(2)(F), an unremarried former spouse can remain a “dependent” for purposes of Chapter 55 if, on the date of the final decree, the marriage had lasted at least 20 years during which the member performed at least 20 years of service creditable toward retired or retainer pay, and the former spouse does not have medical coverage under an employer-sponsored health plan. This is the statutory basis commonly described as the 20/20/20 rule. Section 1086(c)(3) includes dependents described in § 1072(2)(F), (G), and (H) among persons eligible for health benefits under that section, subject to its limitations.

The current one-year rule commonly called 20/20/15 is reflected in 10 U.S.C. § 1072(2)(G)–(H). Paragraph (G) describes an unremarried former spouse where the member had at least 20 years of creditable service, the marriage lasted at least 20 years, and at least 15 but less than 20 of those years overlapped creditable service, along with the employer-health-plan condition. Paragraph (H) extends dependent status for one year after the final decree to a person who would qualify under paragraph (G) except for the decree-date condition stated there. Section 1086(c)(3) provides health-benefit eligibility for dependents covered by paragraph (H), subject to the statute.

Commissary and MWR Retail Privileges Are a Separate Statutory Rule

Health eligibility should not be conflated with commissary or other installation privileges. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1062(a), an unremarried former spouse described in § 1072(2)(F)(i) is entitled, under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense, to use commissary stores and MWR retail facilities to the same extent and on the same basis as the surviving spouse of a retired member. The one-year 20/20/15 health-eligibility rule in § 1072(2)(H) should not be stated as if it automatically carries the same commissary and MWR entitlement.

Thrift Savings Plan

The Thrift Savings Plan is governed by Title 5 rather than the military-retired-pay provisions of 10 U.S.C. § 1408. The principal statutory authority for implementing a divorce-related division of TSP benefits is 5 U.S.C. § 8467. Under § 8467(a), payments otherwise payable under Chapter 84 may be paid, in whole or in part, to another person to the extent expressly provided by a decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation, or by a qualifying court order or court-approved property settlement incident to such a decree. Under § 8467(b), the payment provision applies to payments made after the Office or Executive Director receives written notice of the decree, order, or agreement and any additional information or documentation required by the statute.

Section 5 U.S.C. § 8437(e)(2) separately provides the TSP’s general protection against assignment, alienation, execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process. Section § 8437(e)(3) creates specified exceptions to that protection, including an obligation of the Executive Director to make a payment to another person under § 8467. Accordingly, § 8467 supplies the substantive divorce-order payment authority, while § 8437(e)(3) confirms that a payment required under § 8467 is not barred by the TSP’s general anti-alienation rule.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I file for divorce in Texas if I am stationed here but was not previously a Texas resident?

Texas Family Code § 6.304 treats a service member who was not previously a Texas resident, or a spouse accompanying that member, as a Texas domiciliary and county resident for divorce filing purposes after the statute’s six-month Texas and 90-day county military-installation periods are satisfied. That filing rule does not by itself establish federal jurisdiction to divide military disposable retired pay; 10 U.S.C. § 1408(c)(4) imposes a separate jurisdictional requirement for retired-pay division.

What is the military 10/10 rule?

Under 10 U.S.C. § 1408(d)(2), direct federal payment of a former spouse’s property-division share of disposable retired pay is unavailable unless the spouses were married for at least 10 years during which the member performed at least 10 years of service creditable for retirement. The 10/10 rule limits the federal direct-payment mechanism; § 1408(c)(1) separately governs a state court’s authority to treat disposable retired pay as property.

Can a Texas court divide all military retirement and VA disability amounts?

No. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1408(c)(1), the federal authorization is limited to disposable retired pay. Section 1408(a)(4) defines disposable retired pay and excludes specified amounts, including retired pay waived to receive compensation under Title 38 and specified disability-retirement amounts under Chapter 61. Those excluded amounts are outside the disposable retired pay that § 1408 authorizes a state court to treat as property.

What are the one-year Survivor Benefit Plan deadlines after divorce?

For a participant already providing spouse coverage, 10 U.S.C. § 1448(b)(3)(A)(iii) requires a former-spouse election to be received by the Secretary concerned within one year after the divorce, dissolution, or annulment decree. If former-spouse coverage is required by a court order or qualifying agreement and the member fails or refuses to elect it, 10 U.S.C. § 1450(f)(3)(C) requires the former spouse’s deemed-election request to be received within one year of the court order or filing involved.

Texas Statutes Referenced

Federal Statutes Referenced

Related Pages

Talk With a Texas Divorce Attorney

Military divorce can involve separate state and federal rules for jurisdiction, retired pay, survivor benefits, health eligibility, and federal retirement accounts. Call 713-955-6182 or contact The De Leon Law Firm to evaluate which statutes apply to the benefits involved in your case.