CourtListener opinion 10777836

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141 Nev., Advance Opinion c2

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEVADA

 LAURA J. WALKER, N/K/A LAURA J. No. 86548
 LATIMER,
 Appellant,
 vs. FILED r
 EGAN KIRK WALKER,
 JAN 09 2025
 Respondent.

 Appeal from a district court post-divorce-decree order regarding
 retirement benefits. Second Judicial District Court, Washoe County;
 William A. Maddox, Sr. Judge.
 Affirrned in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

 Dietrich Law Group and Raymond S. Dietrich, Las Vegas,
 for Appellant.

 Smith Jain Stutzman and Kimberly A. Stutzman and Radford J. Smith,
 Henderson,
 for Respondent.

 Public Employees' Retirement System of Nevada and Ian E. Carr, Carson
 City,
 for Amicus Curiae.

 BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT, HERNDON, C.J., and LEE and BELL,
 JJ.

SUPREME COURT
 OF
 NEVADA
 2.s-- Of 151
(0) 1947A cgD:.
 OPINION

 By the Court, LEE, J.:
 Members of the Public Employees' Retirement System of
 Nevada (PERS) and the Judicial Retirement System of Nevada (JRS) may,
 upon retirement, designate a beneficiary to be paid the member's
 retirement benefits for the life of the beneficiary following the member's
 death. The option for payment to a beneficiary after the death of the
 member is known as Option 2. In this case, a PERS member left public
 employment to enter private practice as an attorney and subsequently
 agreed as part of a divorce decree to designate his ex-wife as the Option 2
 beneficiary of his PERS account. Thereafter, the member remarried, re-
 entered public employment as a judge, transferred his PERS service credits
 to JRS, and wished to designate his current wife the Option 2 beneficiary of
 his JRS account.
 The question before us is whether, under NRS 1A.450(1)(a), a
 JRS member may designate more than one Option 2 beneficiary. We
 conclude that a JRS member can designate both a former spouse and a
 current spouse as Option 2 beneficiaries when the former spouse is entitled
 to only a percentage of the benefit as part of a divorce decree—meaning if
 the member predeceases both the former and current spouses, both must be
 paid as Option 2 beneficiaries in accordance with their respective portion of
 the benefits. We further hold that when a former spouse of a PERS member
 possesses a protected interest in the member's PERS retirement benefits,
 that interest is not extinguished if the member transfers the benefits from
 PERS to JRS.
 FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
 After 13 years of marriage, respondent Egan Walker and
 appellant Laura Latimer divorced in 2002. During their marriage, Walker
SUPREME COURT
 OF
 NEVADA

 2
(0) 1947A
 earned 8.54 years of PERS credits while employed as a deputy district
 attorney with Carson City and Washoe County from 1991 to 2000. The
 divorce decree incorporated a marital settlement agreement (MSA), which
 awarded Latimer one-half of Walker's PERS retirement benefit and
 provided that Latimer's share would be secured by a qualified domestic
 relations order (QDRO) that allowed Latimer to elect Option 2. The QDRO
 provided that Latimer \is entitled to a portion of the Participant's