In re the Marriage of Herald

In Swan and Swan, 301 Or 167, 176, 720 P2d 747 (1986), this court, applying preemption principles, stated that it violated federal law for “[f]amily courts, in making a division of property, [to] consider Social Security benefits.” The question presented in this case — where one spouse is a Social Security participant and the other is not — is whether federal law forbids a division of property by which the value of retirement benefits belonging to the nonparticipating spouse is reduced by the present value of hypothetical Social Security benefits to which that spouse would have been entitled…