The Procedures For Splitting Retirement Accounts In A Divorce
If you are going through a divorce and you or your spouse have retirement accounts, the processes for splitting the retirement accounts will vary depending on what type of retirement accounts are involved.
401(k) & 403(b) Plan
The first category of retirement plans are called ?employer sponsored qualified plans?. This category includes 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, 457 plans, and profit sharing plans. Once you and your spouse have agreed upon the split amount of the retirement plans, one of the attorneys will draft Domestic Relations Order, otherwise known as a QDRO. This document provides instruction to the plans TPA (third party administrator) as to how and when to split the retirement assets between the ex-spouses. Here is the procedures from start to finish:
One attorney drafts the Domestic Relations Order (?DRO?)
The attorney for the other spouse reviews and approved the DRO
The spouse covered by the retirement plan submits it to the TPA for review
The TPA will review the document and respond with changes that need to be made (if any)
Attorneys submit the DRO to the judge for signing
Once the judge has signed the DRO, its now considered a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO)
The spouse covered by the retirement plan submits the QDRO to the plans TPA for processing
The TPA splits the retirement account and will often issues distribution forms to the ex-spouse not covered by the plan detailing the distribution options
Step number four is very important. Before the DRO is submitting to the judge for signing, make sure that the TPA, that oversees the plan being split, has had a chance to review the document. Each plan is different and some plans require unique language to be included in the DRO before the retirement account can be split. If the attorneys skip this step, we have seen cases where they go through the entire process, pay the court fees to have the judge sign the QDRO, they submit the QDRO for processing with the TPA, and then the TPA firm rejects the QDRO because it is missing information. The process has to start all over again, wasting time and money.
Pension Plans
Like employer sponsored retirement plans, pension plans are split through the drafting of a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). However, unlike 401(k) and 403(b) plans that usually provide the ex-spouse with distribution options as soon as the QDRO is processed, with pension plans the benefit is typically delayed until the spouse covered by the plan is eligible to begin receiving pension payments. A word of caution, pension plans are tricky. There are a lot more issues to address in a QDRO document compared to a 401(k) plan. 401(k) plans are easy. With a 401(k) plan you have a current balance that can be split immediately. Pension plan are a promise to pay a future benefit and a lot can happen between now and the age that the covered spouse begins to collect pension payments. Pension plans can terminate, be frozen, employers can go bankrupt, or the spouse covered by the retirement plan can continue to work past the retirement date.
I would like to specifically address the final option in the paragraph above. In pension plans, typically the ex-spouse is not entitled to a benefit until the spouse covered by the pension plan is eligible to receive benefits. While the pension plan may state that the employee can retire at 65 and start collecting their pension, that does not mean that they will with 100% certainty. We have seen cases where the ex-husband could have retired at age 65 and started collecting his pension benefit but just to prevent his ex-wife from collecting on his benefit decided to delay retirement which in turn delayed the pension payments to his ex-wife. The ex-wife had included those pension payments in her retirement planning but had to keep working because the ex-husband delayed the benefit. Attorneys will often put language in a QDRO that state that whether the employee retires or not, at a given age, the ex-spouse is entitled to turn on her portion of the pension benefit. The attorneys have to work closely with the TPA of the pension plan to make sure the language in the QDRO is exactly what it need to be to reserve that benefit for the ex-spouse.
IRA (Individual Retirement Accounts)
IRA? are usually the easiest of the three categories to split because they do not require a Qualified Domestic Relations Order to separate the accounts. However, each IRA provider may have different documentation requirements to split the IRA accounts. The account owner should reach out to their investment advisor or the custodian of their IRA accounts to determine what documents are needed to split the account. Sometimes it is as easy as a letter of instruction signed by the owner of the IRA detailing the amount of the split and a copy of the signed divorce agreement. While these accounts are easier to split, make sure the procedures set forth by the IRA custodians are followed otherwise it could result in adverse tax consequences and/or early withdrawal penalties.
About Michael??...
Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.
