1. Employee and Employer Contributions
401(k) plans often include both employee deferrals and employer contributions such as matches or discretionary contributions. In your QDRO, you’ll want to consider:
- Whether the alternate payee receives a portion of just the employee contributions or both employee and employer contributions.
- Whether employer contributions were subject to a vesting schedule at the time of divorce.
If a portion of the account is unvested, it can be excluded or handled through a “separate interest” QDRO approach that divides only the vested portion.

