Legal Question in Family Law in New York
Retirement assets
My divorce was finalized 15 August 2001. All the assets in the 401k were to be granted to me. Apparantly a QDRO is needed and I'd like to know exactly what this is and what sort of time frame I'm looking at before actually receiving this money.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Retirement assets
A QDRO is a Qualified Domestic Relations Order - it is prepared by an attorney and submitted to the court for approval and signature. A QDRO spells out how and in what proportions a given asset such as a pension or 401k - is to be divided. The order will also specify under what time frame this is to happen - for example - under a pension QDRO, usually the pension won't pay out until retirement of the holder.
Re: Retirement assets
A ODRO is a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, and it's the order the judge will sign which will actually divide up retirement assets.
QDROs can be a very large pain. Your attorney, or your wife's attorney will draft it, and it must be signed by the judge. Then it goes to the company holding the pension plan, and directs them how to divide the assets.
Some companies can be very uncooperative. That is where the problems come in. They may kick back the QDRO because they do not like the language used.
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