1604.9—Court orders and legal processes.
A TSP account can be divided in an action for divorce, annulment, or legal separation, and is subject to legal process relating to child support, alimony, or child abuse. The TSP will make a payment from a service member's account under such orders or processes as described at 5 CFR part 1653, with the following exceptions:
(a) Separate accounts.
To qualify for enforcement against the TSP, a court order or legal process must expressly relate to the TSP. Therefore, if the TSP maintains a service member account and a civilian account for an individual, a qualifying court order or legal process must expressly state from which account payment is to be made.
(b) Combat zone contributions.
If a service member account contains combat zone contributions, the payment will be made pro rata from all sources.
(c) Trustee-to-trustee transfers.
The current or former spouse of a TSP participant can request the TSP to transfer a court-ordered payment to a traditional IRA or eligible employer plan. If the payee requests the TSP to transfer all or a portion of the court-ordered payment to an IRA or plan, the share of the payment attributable to combat zone contributions (if any) can be transferred only if the IRA or plan accepts such funds.
(d) Transfer to a TSP account.
If the TSP maintains an account for a court order payee who is the current or former spouse of the participant, the payee can request the TSP to transfer the court-ordered payment to the payee's TSP account; the pro rata share attributable to combat zone contributions (if any) cannot be transferred.