Qualifying legal processes.

(a) The TSP record keeper will only honor the terms of a legal process that is qualifying under paragraph (b) of this section. (b) A legal process must meet each of the following requirements to be considered qualifying: (1) A competent authority must have issued the legal process; (2) The legal process must expressly relate to the Thrift Savings Plan account of a TSP participant, as described in § 1653.2(a)(1); (3) The legal process must require the TSP to: (i) Pay a stated dollar amount from a participant's TSP account; or (ii) Freeze the participant's account in anticipation of an order to pay from the account. (c) The following legal processes are not qualifying: (1) A legal process relating to a TSP account that has been closed; (2) A legal process relating to a TSP account that contains only nonvested money; (3) A legal process requiring the return to the TSP of money that was properly paid pursuant to an earlier legal process; (4) A legal process requiring the TSP to make a payment in the future; and (5) A legal process requiring a series of payments. (6) A legal process that designates the specific TSP core fund, source of contributions, or balance from which the payment or portions of the payment shall be made. [68 FR 35510, June 13, 2003, as amended at 77 FR 26429, May 4, 2012; 87 FR 31690, May 24, 2022]