Employee vs. Employer Contributions
Employee contributions are typically 100% vested and fully divisible. In other words, what’s been contributed by the employee — and the investment gains earned on those contributions — can be split between spouses as of the date of divorce or another agreed-upon valuation date.
Employer contributions, however, may be subject to a vesting schedule. If the employee hasn’t worked a certain number of years, some of those funds may not yet belong to them — and can’t be awarded to the alternate payee. A QDRO must carefully track what is “vested” versus “unvested” so that nothing is divided improperly.

