1. Employee and Employer Contributions
Most 401(k) plans include both types of contributions:
- Employee Contributions: Money the participant has chosen to defer from their own paycheck
- Employer Contributions: Matching or profit-sharing contributions from the company
In a QDRO, you can choose to divide just the employee contributions or the full vested balance. If contributions have a vesting schedule (which is common for profit-sharing and matching), it’s critical to identify which amounts are actually marital property and available to be divided.

