Vesting Schedules and Forfeiture Risks
Employer contributions are often subject to a vesting schedule. That means if the participant hasn’t worked long enough, they may forfeit some portion of the employer contributions. A good QDRO will account for this and ensure that only the vested portion is assigned to the alternate payee.
If you award the alternate payee a portion of employer contributions and those amounts end up forfeited because the participant leaves the company early, you may end up with nothing. Don’t let that happen—spell it out in the QDRO.

