Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

You will definitely need an experienced lawyer for this. Transfers of qualified pension plans must be done by what called a qualified domestic relatins order, or QUADRO for short. Even some family law attorneys farm this work out to QUADRO attorney specialists. And I doubt very much any attorney worth their salt will just do a QUADRO for you. It does sound like you and your wife may be close to resolution though. So perhaps it won't be as expensive as you may think.

Division of retirement and pension interests incident to dissolution of marriage is a rather tricky and technical part of the divorce process. Private sector plans (such as union plans) are generally subject to the federal Employees Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 and the Retiremen Equity Act of 1984, which allow a plan administration to divide the retirement asset only upon receiving a domestic relations order (DRO) that qualifies with the specific requirements of the federal law and with the plan's own procedures and requirements. If so, the DRO is deemed to be a "qualifiied DRO", or simply a "QDRO."

In contrast, PERS is a state government operated pension/retirement plan that is not subject to the federal laws such as ERISA and REA,. It is controlled by certain provisions of the Oregon Revised Statutes and Oregon Adminisrative Rules, both of which nowadays require certain "magic words" to be used in the divorce decree in order to permit PERS to split the retirement interest.

It is important that the special requirements for court orders needed to divide pension and retirement interests incident to divorce be done and done right, and in a timely manner. Otherwise, you are looking a much frustration and possible financial loss.

I have been drafting QDROs and dividing PERS interests incident to divorce cases for over 25 years and have done hundreds of them, both for my own cases as well as for other attorneys. Suggest you give me a call or drop me an email I welcome the opportunity to be of service.

LAWRENCE D. GORIN

http://ldgorin.justia.net/index.com

Law Office of L.D. Gorin

521 S.W. Clay St., Suite 205

Portland, Oregon 97201

Telephone: 503.224.8884

Fax: 503.226.1321

E-mail: [email protected]