In Re Marriage of Luciano

We here consider whether a trial court abuses its discretion in a judgment of dissolution of marriage by requiring a nonemployee spouse to wait for the receipt of his or her share of community property, consisting of military retirement benefits, until such time as the employee spouse actually retires. Our conclusion is that the proper procedure in such a case is for the trial court to retain jurisdic tion and provide that the nonemployee spouse may elect to commence receiving his or her community property portion at any time after the employee spouse becomes eligible for retirement even though the employee spouse does not in fact retire.

This matter is the result of a dissolution of the marriage of Ferdinand and Dorothy Luciano (hereinafter referred to respectively as Ferdinand or Dorothy). The sole remaining dispute concerns the retirement benefits arising out of Ferdinand’s service in the United States Air Force. On July 12, 1977, Dorothy filed a petition to dissolve the marriage. One of the assets listed as community property was the retirement benefit. The parties had been married for a total of 220 months. During that period Ferdinand was (and still is) a member of…