Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

A QDRO, or QUADRO (short for Qualified Domestic Relations Order) is a special court order, under section 414 of the Internal Revenue Code, used for dividing ERISA-qualified retirement benefits. Was a QDRO entered in your divorce case? If done properly, you should have been entitled to your share of the funds in your wife's 403(b) plan immediately. You should not have had to wait until she left her employment. If the QDRO was not entered, you need to immediately run, not walk, to a domestic relations attorney well-versed in retirement benefits issues. If there is no QDRO in place, and if you are no longer married, there is nothing to prevent your ex-wife from accessing the entirety of the funds in her retirement account.