Employee and Employer Contributions
This plan likely includes a mix of employee contributions (which are always 100% vested by law) and employer contributions, which could be subject to a vesting schedule. That means some of the account balance may not be fully available for division if the employee spouse hadn’t worked long enough to vest in those employer-funded portions before the divorce cutoff date.
When drafting the QDRO, we carefully identify:
- Whether the employer match is fully or partially vested
- The cutoff date for determining the marital portion
- How forfeitures should be handled (typically they revert to the plan)

