Many individuals going through the divorce process are concerned about what happens to their retirement accounts at the time of a divorce. Your spouse is entitled to half of the marital portion of your retirement accounts. The marital portion of your account begins at the date of your marriage and ends on the date of the commencement of your divorce action.
If you have an account such as a 401k where you can see the balance of the account at the time of the marriage and at the commencement of the divorce, your attorney can calculate the marital portion of your account and determine how much money your spouse is entitled to. If you have an account like a pension that does not have a set amount at those times your attorney would hire a company that drafts Qualified Domestic Retirement Orders (QDRO) to determine the value of your account at those times. Your retirement company would then take the QDRO that is signed by the court and distribute the funds to your spouse. If you choose to settle your case rather than go to trial, you can be creative in the way you provide your spouse with their marital portion and that is what the attorneys at Capetola & Divins, P.C. are here to assist with.