Employee vs. Employer Contributions
Contributions made by the employee (deferrals) are always 100% vested and eligible to be divided. But employer matching contributions or profit-sharing contributions may be subject to a vesting schedule. In some cases, only a fraction of those amounts is considered “marital property.”
This matters: You don’t want a QDRO that awards the alternate payee (usually the ex-spouse) more than what the participant actually owns. If the QDRO doesn’t account for unvested funds properly, it could either shortchange one party or be rejected by the administrator.

