Lawyer and Legal Professional Retirement Division & QDRO Subscription Service

Your Retirement Division Co-Counsel: A QDRO Consigliere

Lawyer and Legal Professional Retirement Division & QDRO Subscription Service

By the time I left law school, I knew I wanted to do family law. I had interned in the practice area and worked in courts, and the issues that these lawyers faced on a daily basis - pretty much spanning every conceivable legal field - both fascinated me and promised a future where I would never be bored.

Family law attorneys have to be proficient in divorce, custody, criminal law, property law, estate planning, taxation, and even the occasional dip into business law.

It is no wonder then that most family law attorneys that I speak to are overwhelmed when it comes to issues of retirement division and ERISA benefits law. Most of the attorneys I practiced with when I started my career in California would hand off these issues to their favorite QDRO attorney. And when it came time to write the divorce settlement agreement, they would simply write things like "plans to be divided by QDRO" or at best, give the client a list of QDRO attorneys at the end of the case that the client could then retain.

I get it. Family law attorneys already have to know so much. None of them want to become familiar with the intricacies of federal retirement and state domestic relations law, and their lovechild: the QDRO. It's a boring niche that few of us have the patience to learn and love.

But your clients need more than a "TBD by QDRO" line in their agreement. Often, the retirement accounts are the most valuable assets to be divided. Countless clients have come to me with a settlement agreement that did not address survivor benefits in the event one party died, or whom have accepted a settlement agreement thinking they could cash out a plan which, in reality, would not pay anything until the other party retired decades later.

Don't give your clients bad advice and don't skip past their biggest assets. With a subscription to our QDRO-on-call service, you get unlimited consultations with a QDRO attorney, settlement language that addresses the ins and outs of retirement benefits better than your standard "TBD" one-liner, and educational resources to slowly increase your knowledge of this important, yet dry field.

There are major benefits to you, the legal professional, to handling the QDRO while the divorce is pending.

Like what? For one, it can help you get paid. One of the biggest issues divorce lawyers face is that their clients run out of money before the case is over. Many cannot walk away for ethical or other reasons, or they simply tell themselves that "the client is good for it and I will get paid eventually."

A QDRO on a defined contribution plan (your 401k, for example) can immediately free up cash if the alternate payee chooses to cash out his or her share. For an attorney, that is a quick way to get your final bill settled.

Also, it you bill by the hour, you may be hesitant to hand off this work to another attorney. But remember, you will still have to review it before advising your client to sign it. There are still billable hours to be had.

Call, Email, or Text

You are going to have QDRO issues in a divorce. It is guaranteed.

How awesome would it be to have someone you can call, email, or text about your specific questions and expect a response within hours?

We deal with plan administrators so you don't have to

One of the biggest pains in QDRO services is dealing with the administrator's of QDRO plans. Every plan has its own rules, suggested form language, and timeline for pre-approving QDRO's and executing final orders.

Instead of familiarizing yourself with every single plans rules, or sitting on hold with the plan each time a new client comes in, lean on us to do the research for you.

Enough to be dangerous, at least.

If I hadn't been a lawyer, I probably would have been a teacher. In fact, I kind of am.

I've taught the LSAT. I've taught CLE's across the country. My classes on QDROs and military retirement division have received better feedback and reviews than I ever could have imagined.

You may not want to become a QDRO expert but a little bit of knowledge, here and there, can't hurt. For our subscribers, we maintain a library of resources as well as a quarterly newsletter and other educational benefits to get you up to speed on retirement division basics.

Even if you could hire a QDRO lawyer, your firm probably would not use him enough to justify the cost. I'm a better alternative: an on-call QDRO attorney whose monthly subscription rate is far less than you'd pay an experienced associate attorney.

We've seen a lot of QDROs, and by extension, a lot of mistakes. Common issues include:

• Vague divorce settlement language that omits or inadequately addresses retirement accounts
• Reluctant parties who won't sign
• Plans that reject prior attempts at QDROs
• Loans, separate property, and community property are mixed

Property tracing: We do basic tracing for 401(k)s and other cash plans — calculating the pre-marital and post-marital (separate property) shares, plus gains and losses attributable to those shares, so nobody gets too much in the division. For complex mixed-fund issues, we'll partner with a CPA.

Full-service handling: For our attorney clients, we handle information gathering, plan research, drafting, plan pre-approval, edits, resubmission, signatures, filing with the court, and returning it to the plan for final execution.

Plan administrator issues: QDROs are immensely complicated and most divorce lawyers won't touch them. We have an eye for the little legal details that cause orders to get rejected and the patience to deal with picky plan administrators.

Settlement language: "TBD by QDRO" isn't good enough. Don't leave an asset worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars unaddressed. That's the real upside of a QDRO subscription: expertise on call.

Contact us for a free consultation at (888) 303-5399 or start your case review.