Dear Clients and Friends,
A QDRO is a special type of court order that divides certain retirement plan benefits in a divorce. A QDRO is issued in addition to a marital settlement agreement (MSA) or final judgment granting your divorce. It contains specific directions to the retirement plan administrator regarding how the plan should be divided between the spouses.
In the divorce context, the spouse that earns retirement benefits through his or her employment is called the "employee spouse" or "participant." The other spouse is referred to as the "non-employee spouse" or "alternate payee." Federal laws governing retirement plans prohibit certain types of plans from paying benefits to anyone other than the participant, unless the plan has been directed to do so under a QDRO. In short, a QDRO allows the retirement plan administrator to pay benefits to the alternate payee.
QDRO’s are routinely handled as a part of the vast majority of our family law cases and we look forward to utilizing our experience with QDRO’s on your behalf.
We continue to invite each of you to rely on our many years of experience and to call us for a free phone evaluation regarding any of your family law questions and to see if we can be of help.
Best,
Ron