Divorce, Annullment, or Legal Separation

Timing and Documentation

To qualify for a Life Event, you must provide documentation of your change in marital status. Documentation includes a finalized divorce decree or related court documents. In many cases, only the first page of the documents is needed to show that the event has been finalized by the courts.

  • Employees are responsible for notifying Employees Benefits of a divorce. After a divorce, ex-spouses and former stepchildren are no longer eligible dependents and must be removed from County health plans.

You have 60 days from the date of your divorce/annulment/legal separation to turn in a copy of your finalized court documents and make changes to your County benefits. New elections will be effective the 1st of the month after you have submitted your documentation.

To Make Changes

You can initiate a Qualifying Life Event and upload a copy of your documentation by logging into PeopleSoft Self Service and following this path:

Main Menu> Self Service > Benefits > Life Event > I got divorced/legally separated

An Employee Benefits representative will then open a Life Event and send you an email with instructions to make your elections. Receipt of your court documents will begin the Life Event process, but you must then log in to actively make your new elections after receiving email notification from Employee Benefits.

COBRA for Removed Dependents

If you are removing dependents from your health plans, they will be receiving a COBRA eligibility notice by mail. Please provide a current address to Employee Benefits so that the notice can be mailed directly; if no update is received, the notice will be sent to your home mailing address for you to give to your ex-spouse.

Consider Changing Your Tax Withholdings

Getting married will affect the amount of taxes you pay. The primary determining factor of your tax status is whether you are a one- or two-income couple. You may wish to consult a financial counselor to discuss your situation. If you decide to change your tax withholdings, you can do so via Employee Self Service.

Name and Address Changes

If you change your address, be sure to update it via Employee Self Service.

To update your name in PeopleSoft and with the insurance carriers, contact your DHRO to discuss the process. Once your department updates your name, that information will automatically update all other records.

*Note for Kaiser Members*

Approximately two weeks after processing your name change within your department, you must call Kaiser Membership Services to request that your “personal record be updated to match your group record.” This will complete the name change process for Kaiser and initiate new member ID cards.