Opinion No. (1985)

Dear Honorable Nigh,

The Attorney General has received your request for an official opinion asking, in effect:

Are military pension plans, which are available to members of the United States armed services, considered marital assets under Oklahoma law for the purposes of distributing marital property in a domestic relations matter?

Until 1981, many state courts (particularly in community property states) held that a military pension paid by the United States government could be divided as marital property in a divorce. The Oklahoma Supreme Court, however, specifically held that a military…