Employee vs. Employer Contributions
The first step is determining ownership of the retirement funds. Your contributions as the employee are always 100% yours. However, employer contributions may be subject to a vesting schedule—meaning you only own a portion of them depending on how long you’ve worked for the company.
If you’re the alternate payee (typically the non-employee spouse), it’s critical to understand that you can only be awarded the portions that are actually vested as of the cutoff date defined in your divorce or property judgment. A solid QDRO should explicitly state this.

