5 CFR 838.306 : Administrative Personnel (§ 1.1 To Parts 10003-10049) — (Parts 700-714 To Parts 1002-1199) — Office Of Personnel Management (Continued) (Parts 700-714 To Parts 1002-1199) — Civil Service Regulations (Continued) (Parts 700-714 To Part 990) — Court Orders Affecting Retirement Benefits (§ 838.101 To § 838.1121) — Requirements For Court Orders Affecting Employee Annuities (§ 838.301 To § 838.306) — Specifying type of annuity for application of formula, percentage or fraction.

(a) A court order directed at an employee annuity that states the former spouse's share of employee annuity as a formula, percentage, or fraction is not a court order acceptable for processing unless OPM can determine the type of annuity (i.e., phased retirement annuity, composite retirement annuity, net annuity, gross annuity, or self-only annuity) on which to apply the formula, percentage, or fraction.

(b) The standard types of annuity to which OPM can apply the formula, percentage, or fraction are phased retirement annuity of a phased retiree, or net annuity, gross annuity, or self-only annuity of a retiree. Unless the court order otherwise directs, OPM will apply to gross annuity the formula, percentage, or fraction directed at annuity payable to either a retiree or a phased retiree. Section 838.625 contains information on other methods of describing these types of annuity.

(c)(1) A court order may include provisions directed at:

(i) Phased retirement annuity payable to a phased retiree, to address the possibility that an employee will enter phased retirement status;

(ii) Composite retirement annuity payable to a phased retiree at entry into full retirement status, to address the possibility that an employee will enter phased retirement status and then enter full retirement status; and

(iii) Annuity payable to an employee who retires without having elected phased retirement status.

(2) To separately provide for division of phased retirement annuity or composite retirement annuity, a provision of a court order must expressly state that it is directed at “phased retirement annuity” or “composite retirement annuity,” and must meet the requirements of paragraph (a). That is, it must state the type of annuity to be divided (e.g., “net phased retirement annuity”). If such a provision is unclear as to whether it is directed at gross, net, or self-only phased retirement annuity or composite retirement annuity, the provision will be applied to gross phased retirement annuity or gross composite retirement annuity, as described in paragraph (b) of this section.

(3) Unless a court order expressly states that phased retirement annuity or composite retirement annuity is not to be divided, a court order meeting the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section and that generally provides for division of annuity, without meeting the requirements of paragraph (c)(2) of this section, regarding the specific type of annuity being divided, will be applied to divide any employee annuity, including phased retirement annuity and composite retirement annuity.