Vesting Schedules
Employer contributions are usually subject to a vesting schedule, which means not all of the match may be considered “owned” by the employee at the time of divorce. For example, a six-year graded schedule means that an employee gets 20% of employer contributions after two years, 40% after three, and so on.
If the participant isn’t fully vested at the time of divorce, only the vested portion can be divided. This matters—especially if your divorce judgment tried to split the full account and didn’t account for the vesting status.

