The question I am asking relates to the divorce of the plan administrator and their former spouse, this case takes place in Wisconsin.
A brief overview of people involved:
Person A: employee of company X, where they are not only the plan administrator but they are a partial owner (the other owners are family members as well)
Person B: ex-spouse
Lawyer A: Lawyer for Person A
Fiduciary
Divorced was finalized in May of 2021.
In January of 2022, the QDRO was filed and signed off by the judge with a May 2021 valuation date (this is key point for later on). The QDRO was signed by Lawyer A, with a December 2022 date, however, court records show that they had withdrawn from the case in June of 2022.
Does the dates above invalidate the QDRO? Since the signature date of Lawyer A doesn't make sense?
As of August 2025 the QDRO was never executed and the assets in Person A's 401k were never split, Person A has been contributing to the plan since the divorce was finalized. In order to get things finished and complete the QDRO, person B asked for plan documents to understand what they were entitled to do with the money owed to them (like rollover, cash out etc) as they had not been given ANY documents prior to this.
Person A supplied a SPD dated August 2021 and claimed that was enough information and that was all they had.
Under Miscellaneous: Domestic Relations Orders - "You may obtain, without charge, a copy of the Plan's QDRO procedures from the Plan Administrator". If this document exists it hasn't been provided
Person B spent weeks asking for more plan documents and then received a Adoption Agreement with the same effective date as the SPD (August 2021), Person A then stated again that they have provided everything they have and everything that Person B needs.
Only relevant information in this is that the valuation date is "Each Business Day"
More correspondence over another few weeks led to Person A sending Person B a Basic Plan Document and again stating that is all they had and is everything Person B needed.
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ISSUE: The QDRO filed, signed by Lawyer A and the judge has a valuation date that is 99 days prior to the Adoption Agreement passed in August 2021. During the correspondence outlined above, Person A, has suggested to the fiduciary and Person A that the valuation date should actually be a different day in May 2021. This new valuation date conveniently falls within 90 days prior to the Adoption Agreement in August 2021.
Person A has repeatedly denied having any documents prior to the ones effective August 2021 and even asked the Fiduciary if they had any documents to try and avoid responsibility.
The question then is. With the dates and timelines given, what, if any, legal actions can Person B take? Is an ERISA lawyer the best way to handle this? Or is another kind of lawyer that is versed in small/family business better?
