Employee vs. Employer Contributions
One major consideration in dividing this type of plan is how to handle contributions. The QDRO can be written to give the alternate payee a percentage or flat dollar amount of:
- The entire account balance (including employee and employer contributions)
- Only employee contributions (which are always 100% the participant’s earnings)
- Employer contributions, depending on how vested the participant is
If the participant isn’t 100% vested in employer contributions, the alternate payee may only receive a portion or none of those funds. This matters a lot in businesses like banks, where vesting schedules may stretch several years.

