When is a QDRO Required?
When is a QDRO required? The answer is, almost always. In nearly every divorce, at least one of the parties has a retirement account. This retirement account is likely marital property, as it was contributed to during the marriage. To split these retirement accounts, a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is needed. A QDRO is […]
What is The Purpose of a QDRO?
In a divorce or legal separation, a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is a legal document that says how retirement benefits will be split. Not only does it say who will get the benefits, but it also says how they will be split. By dividing retirement benefits via QDRO, the parties ensure that the calculations […]
What is a QDRO and How Does it Work?
A Qualified Domestic Relations Order, commonly referred to as a QDRO, is a court-order that directs a retirement plan to divide retirement accounts, typically along the terms of the divorcing parties’ agreement. If there is no agreement – or the agreement is unclear – the QDRO will work off your state’s default law to decide […]
How Long Does It Take to Get QDRO Money?
After waiting for your divorce judgment to be finalized, nobody wants to wait for the QDRO to be done, especially when it seems like it could be as simple as withdrawing money from a bank account. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. If you take money out of the account early without a QDRO, you […]
Do You Need a QDRO For a 401(k)?
QDROs are slow. The fastest QDRO I have personally done was a little more than a month between the time they retained me and the time I handed off to the retirement plan. That one was pretty much an exception — a rare miracle where both parties were cooperative, the court had zero backlog, and […]
Pre-Retirement and Post-Retirement Survivor Benefits in Pension QDROs
Qualified pre-retirement survivor annuity? Post-retirement survivor benefits? Shared or separate interests? What about the new spouse? We tackle common pension QDRO survivor benefit questions in this post.
Talking QDROs at the Missouri Bar Family Law 2019 Conference
11 Retirement Division and QDRO Mistakes People Make in Divorce
I serve in a niche that maybe shouldn’t exist. I am a QDRO attorney, a guy who drafts orders dividing retirement accounts as part of (or more commonly, after) a divorce. I exist because most divorce lawyers don’t understand – or don’t want to deal with – the retirement accounts. If you’re going through a […]
Free: Fight NYC School Zone Speed Camera and Red Light Camera Tickets With My App
Update: 9/13/22: The old software tool that I used to build the initial machine is going offline soon – though an exact date hasn’t been announced. I’ve since set up an open source tool on my server that requires some light code/YAML syntax to get it to operate, but at least it’s open source and […]
10 Reasons I Love QDROs
QDROs are a lot like two legged dog with an incontinence problem: it takes a very special person to love them. They are complex. They are the most niche of legal documents, and illegitimate child of state marital property law and federal ERISA law, with a little bit of plan administrator rules thrown in just […]