About Andreas Moser Expertise International family law with connections to Germany. Separation, divorce, alimony, child support, custody, visitation, adoption, international child abduction, military divorces, etc. Representing clients all over Germany.
Family law ONLY.
Experience After getting my 2 German law degress, I interned with the US Army JAG Corps for half a year, supporting US soldiers in Germany and helping them with their family law questions.
Since 2002, I have my own law firm (www.moser-law.com) specializing on international family law. Extensive experience in German-American and German-British cases, including hundreds of military divorces. Bar-certified Specialist for Family Law.
Publications A list of published court decisions of my cases is available on www.moser-law.com.
Education/Credentials My CV is available on www.moser-law.com.
Question My wife and I have separated after 22 years of marriage. We were married in Denmark. I am an American citizen. My wife is a German. She lives in Bavaria and I live in Japan but will soon move to Belgium. How can we get divorced in the EU? She says she will get half my retirement but I don’t want to give her anything. How can I protect my assets? We have children but they are all over 18 years of age. I work fo the military but am not a soldier.
Answer Hello Rod,
after you move to Belgium, you could get a divorce either in Germany or in Belgium. Having married in Denmark is not enough to establish jurisdiction there.
Germany would apply the law of the country where you last lived together. Which law Belgium would apply, I could only say after some research as I am not a Belgian lawyer.
According to German law, she would indeed be entitled to half the retirement (that was paid for during the time of the marriage), but you would of course have the same claim towards her retirement.
But German courts do not have any jurisdiction over US military pensions, so she would need to go to a US court to get that.
Realistically, you are therefore pretty safe as I have almost never seen that to happen because most German wives shy away from the expenses incurred by that.
Andreas Moser
Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für Familienrecht
(Attorney at Law and Family Law Specialist)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gustav-von-Schlör-St 10, 92249 Vilseck, Germany
phone: 49-9662-289981 - fax: 49-9662-701391
cell phone: 49-172-8100726
www.moser-law.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
