QDRO (Qualified Domestic Relations Order)

What is a QDRO

A “qualified domestic relation order” (QDRO) is a domestic relations order that creates or recognizes the existence of an “alternate payee’s” right to receive, or assigns to an alternate payee the right to receive, all or a portion of the benefits payable with respect to a participant under a retirement plan, and that includes certain information and meets certain other requirements.

What types of accounts need QDROs?

A QDRO applies only to a company retirement plan — a 401(k), 403(b), Pension, or similar plan. Generally speaking, IRAs DO NOT need QDROs.

No Two QDROs are the same.

QDROs are difficult and annoying because every employer or financial institution has different forms or requirements for their QDROs. If the QDRO sent to the financial institution/employer does not meet the exact requirements and expectations, they will reject it.   If at all possible – try to come to an agreement regarding having a 3rd party draft the QDRO to avoid running into rejections. For a list of QDRO preparers, see Expert List in Wiki:   https://theintervenors.com/knowledge-base/family-law-experts/

Drafting a QDRO

If you are tasked with drafting a QDRO, the first thing you should do is gather the information on the account that is being divided including the financial institution, type of account, and account number. As you are gathering this information, look for a customer service number of one of the statements. Try calling that customer service number and seeing if you can reach a person or department that deals with transferring funds, dividing accounts, or issues related to divorce. If you can get ahold of someone, tell them you are from an attorney’s office and are wondering if they have a template for an acceptable version of a QDRO or if they can provide you with all the information that must be included in a QDRO that will be submitted to them. If they try asking for account number or if you have permission to talk, tell them you aren’t asking for account specific information about an account, just general information on what they require in a QDRO. Sometimes they will have a template they can email you or, at the least, some required language they will provide you. Other times they may direct you to their webpage where they have examples. You can also try googling the name of the financial institution and QDRO or divorce and retirement to see if you can find any information that way. Just be sure you are looking on the actual financial institution’s webpage and not a site that is trying to sell you QDROs.  If the company/employer is big or common, we may have examples in past files too. You can also try doing a search in sharepoint for the name of the financial institution and see if anything comes up.

If you are looking for QDRO/DRO specific to Teacher’s Retirement Accounts, see this: Family Law – MN State Retirement System (MSRS) Retirement / DRO – K|H Law Wiki

At a minimum, most QDROs generally require the following information:

1. Information on the Plan Participant (the person who has the retirement plan)

Participant Name

Social Security Number

Address

Phone

E-Mail

2. Information about the Plan

Name of the Employer

Name of the Plan

Employer Contact Information

3. Information about the Alternate Payee (the person who is begin transferred money from the retirement plan)

Alternate Payee Name

Social Security Number

Address

Phone

E-Mail

Relationship to Participant

4. Information on Holder of Assets (Investment Provider)

Investment Company Name

Participant Account Number of account to be distributed

5. Amount

Amount or percentage of the participant’s benefit to be paid to the alternate payee

Specific dates or method used in determining amount or percentage

Whether the amount or percentage is subject to gains/losses

Submitting QDRO for Approval

QDRO will need approval by multiple people, in the order listed below:

1. Email to attorney to review/approve
2. Email to client to review/approve
3. Email to OPA/OPP to review/approve
4. Send to the Plan Administrator to review/approve
   1. This is important. The plan administrator is the entity that will review the QDRO and let you know if it meets their requirements PRIOR to going through the work of having the document signed by the parties and the Judge. If you don’t have contact information for the plan administrator, again, try calling customer service or looking online. If none of that works, reach out to co-workers or attorney for help.
   2. Depending on the plan administrator, they may want you to fax, mail, or email the proposed QDRO. You’ll have to clarify with the plan administrator how they want you to send it. Regardless, you’ll want to draft a letter to go with it and it should read something like (below) and you should copy OPA/OPP:
      1. 

QDRO is approved

1. If everything goes well, you should get a letter back from the plan administrator saying the QDRO was approved and can be sent to the Court. This could take a few weeks or a few months. The language in the letter would look something like this or indicate that the order is “qualified”:
2. 
3. Circulate the QDRO for signature by the parties
4. Efile/Eserve QDRO (DO NOT FILE Word .docx version of the document. PDF Only)
5. Once you receive QDRO signed by Judge, request certified copy of QDRO
6. Once certified copy of QDRO is received, send to plan administrator per their instructions
7. Once the financial institution receives the certified copy of the QDRO, they should send you a letter indicating they received the order and that the transfer was finalized. The letter you

QDRO is NOT approved.

1. If you get a response that the QDRO was not approved (it happens, don’t worry), you’ll need to sort out why it wasn’t approved, fix those errors, and then redo all the steps under “Submitting QDRO for approval” until you receive an approval, then you can move on to the steps in section “QDRO is approved”
2. Usually, if the QDRO is rejected, you’ll get a letter saying it was rejected or not approved along with information telling you why it wasn’t approved or what needs to be changed. Below is an example of what the letter may say:
3.