Employee and Employer Contributions
Participants in the plan may have both employee contributions (which are fully vested immediately) and employer matching or discretionary contributions. Employer contributions often follow a vesting schedule. The alternate payee is only entitled to the vested portion of employer contributions as of the cutoff valuation date.
If the valuation date is during the marriage, and a portion of employer contributions is unvested, the QDRO should clearly state whether those unvested amounts will be included later if they vest—or whether the alternate payee only receives what’s vested at the time of division.

