Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Re: 401k

Thanks for your question, here's the solution: Don't wait for your husband to act, serve a copy of the order on the administrator of the 401(k), to ensure it is on notice of the order, and to effect a roll over from the plan. Although you write that your husband was ordered "to pay" half his 401(k), I presume he wasn't actually ordered to pay you cash. Instead, I presume the court divided his 401(k) equally between you, and you are therefore entitled to one-half the value of his 401(k) account as of the date of the divorce (or as of the date of your pretrial). What could complicate this, however, is the manner in which you account for losses in the plan since the date of your divorce, since I presume it has declined in value since that time. How this issue is resolved depends on the language in your decree -- were you awarded a specific dollar value from the plan, or a percentage? In any event, absent something unusual in your case, you should be able to deal directly with the administrator of the plan.

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Re: 401k

I should add that, depending on the language of the decree and your husband's conduct, a contempt motion may be appropriate. Perhaps this is why you returned to court in the first place.