Recently, two elderly former educators who taught in Missouri public schools for years filed a joint motion to amend their divorce judgment to provide that neither of them would continue to have any survivorship rights whatsoever in the PERS/PEERS retirement of the other. By the Court issuing an amended judgment of dissolution of their marriage, both the former husband and former wife received a “bump up” in their monthly retirement payments from PERS/PEERS.
This is because effective August 28, 2019, Missouri lawmakers added to subsection 3 of sections 169.141 and 169.715, RSMo, to enable persons whose marriage was dissolved before September 1, 2017, to receive increased monthly retirement benefits:
“3. Any person receiving a retirement allowance under sections 169.010 to 169.140 who elected a reduced retirement allowance under subsection 3 of section 169.070 with his or her spouse as the nominated beneficiary may have the retirement allowance increased to the amount the retired member would be receiving had the retired member elected option 1 if:
* * *
(2) The marriage of the retired person and the nominated spouse was dissolved before September 1, 2017, and:
* * *
(b) The dissolution decree does not provide for sole retention by the retired person
of all rights in the retirement allowance and the parties obtain an amended or modified
dissolution decree after September 1, 2017, which provides for sole retention by the
retired person of all rights in the retirement allowance . . . .”
Other folks who want to increase their monthly PERS/PEERS payments may also want to file a motion to amend the divorce judgment.
Kurt H. King, Law Office of Kurt H. King
816.781.6000; 20 E. Franklin, Liberty, Missouri 64068; kurthking@swbell.net
Family Law, Business and Injury Litigation, Employment Discrimination/Retaliation; General Matters
The Law Office of Kurt H King 
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