As a part of the division of properties between spouses upon their divorce, the pension funds are also divided.  

Pension funds are deducted and set-aside from an employee’s salary as savings for a time when we will no longer be employed, and in this instance such funds were deducted during the period that the spouses had been maintaining their spousal relationship, and therefore it is natural that such funds should be subject to division upon divorce.

However, what happens if the pension holder resolves to take an early retirement, before the regular allotted time?  

A court room of the Haifa District Court of Law was presented with a claim by a woman, who argued that the divorce agreement with her former spouse had stated that the pension funds would be divided upon their receipt, meaning when the husband became a pensioner.  The agreed manner of dividing the pension was that the woman would receive a certain amount when the man became a pensioner, and thereafter would receive a monthly payment of 1,200 NIS.  

The man resolved to take an early retirement, at the age of sixty instead of sixty seven, as in ordinary instances, and yet refused to deliver the woman’s portion of the pension until he reach the age of sixty seven.

The Justice inquired opposite the man’s place of employment whether his early retirement had resulted from medical conditions that precluded him from continued employment or whether it was elective, and discovered that the early retirement had not been ascribed to any medical conditions that precluded his continued employment, and was entirely elective.  Accordingly, the judge determined that the woman was entitled to receive her share as required and agreed under the terms of the divorce agreement executed by the parties. This judgment was also affirmed in the subsequent appeal that was filed by the man.