knhmayo

Note also that some courts have found that property settlement orders and divorce decrees themselves satisfy the requirements of a QDRO--so the company may be evaluating whether what they have in hand qualifies as a QDRO even though it isn't styled as a standalone DRO.

409A is extremely complicated. There generally aren't requirements about when benefits accrue or are credited--409A is generally focused on hard and fast rules for the time and form of payment. That said, though, sometimes the two can be tied together by design... so the answer is going to be very fact intensive and can only be answered for a given plan by reviewing the document.

Have you reviewed the 8955-SSA on which their benefits were reported to confirm it is an error on SSA's end?