Employee and Employer Contributions
This 401(k) plan likely includes:
- Employee Salary Deferrals: The money the participant elected to contribute from paychecks.
- Employer Contributions: Matching or profit-sharing amounts provided by the company.
Only vested employer contributions are divisible. That means if the participant isn’t fully vested at the time of divorce or plan division, the alternate payee has no legal claim to those unvested amounts. The QDRO should clearly state that the alternate payee is entitled to the participant’s vested account balance as of the date of division.

