How can my spouse’s retirement plan be distributed to me?

A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (“QDRO”) is the vehicle to distributing a retirement plan to a spouse. If there is a retirement account that does not have a set value, like a pension, a QDRO must be completed in order to determine the marital value of the account. A company which specializes in QDROs will prepare the document and value the account to determine the value of the account from the date of the marriage to the date of the commencement of the divorce action. The QDRO is then submitted to the court who reviews the document and the judge will sign off on it. Once the QDRO is signed by the judge the QDRO gets submitted to the retirement plan for disbursement.