## Facts

- Husband, a police officer, participated in a municipal police pension fund beginning in 1973.
- The parties married in 1984 and dissolved their marriage in 1995.
- The dissolution judgment incorporated an oral settlement awarding wife “one-half (½) of Husband’s pension as it has accrued from the date of the marriage to the date of the entry of this Judgment,” and the court retained jurisdiction to enter a QDRO.
- Husband continued working and retired in 2002 after 29 years of service; his monthly gross pension benefit was $6,012.83.
- Before a QDRO was entered, husband began paying wife an estimated pension share in 2003.
- Wife sought court enforcement, arguing she was entitled to a share calculated from husband’s actual retirement benefit using a time-based marital fraction and to a proportional share of statutory 3% annual cost-of-living increases (COLAs).
- The trial court used a coverture fraction (marital service years over total service years), awarded wife one-half of the marital portion ($1,112.67 per month), ordered arrearages, and required husband to pass along wife’s proportional share of future 3% COLAs.

## Issues

1. Whether the settlement language awarding wife one-half of the pension “as it has accrued” during the marriage required freezing valuation as of dissolution rather than applying a coverture fraction to the actual retirement benefit.
2. Whether wife was entitled to a proportional share of statutory 3% annual COLAs on the marital portion of the pension.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s use of a coverture-fraction method applied to husband’s actual retirement benefit to determine wife’s share.
- The appellate court held the phrase “as it has accrued” identified the marital portion of the pension (service during the marriage) and did not require valuing the pension as of the dissolution date.
- The appellate court affirmed the requirement that wife receive her proportional share of statutory 3% COLAs attributable to the marital portion of the pension.
- The court affirmed the judgment but remanded for correction of the order (technical clarification without altering substantive entitlement).

## Legal Principles

- A marital settlement agreement incorporated into a dissolution judgment is construed under contract principles to effectuate the parties’ intent as expressed in the agreement’s language.
- An award of a portion of a pension “as it has accrued” during the marriage generally describes the marital share (benefits attributable to marital service), not a directive to freeze the pension’s value at dissolution.
- When pension distribution occurs upon retirement, the marital share is commonly calculated by a time-based coverture fraction applied to the employee-spouse’s actual retirement benefit.
- Statutory COLAs that automatically adjust pension payments are treated as part of the pension benefit stream and, absent contrary agreement, are allocated between the parties in the same proportion as the underlying marital pension share.

## Conclusion

The court upheld dividing the police pension by applying a marital-service fraction to the actual retirement benefit and requiring proportional sharing of statutory 3% COLAs, concluding the settlement’s “as it has accrued” language defined the marital portion rather than imposing a frozen divorce-date valuation, and remanded only for technical correction of the implementing order.


In re Marriage of Richardson, 884 N.E.2d 1246 (Ill. App. Ct. 2008)