QDRO Policy

[Guest Gordy]

Can a client establish a QDRO policy that, in effect, says that the amount of the benefit to be disbursed to the alternate payee will be specified in the QDRO. I've seen several that specify that the balance as of the date of marriage, for example March 6, 1992 is to be determined and the balance through date of separation is to be determined. The difference is split etc. The attorneys get upset when you explain the difficulties of this.

As a TPA, I'd like to stayout of the middle of this and keep things simple for my client and myself.

If you can do this and there is no current policy, can you establish the policy after you receive the QDRO?

[QDROphile]

The plan can establish reasonable limits on what it will do and reasonable procedures for how it will carry out certain functions, such as computation of earnings for a period. What is reasonable depends on the circumstances. It is important for the written procedures to specify what the plan will do or not do. This will prevent parties from thinking they will get something that they will not (such as an unrealistic degree of accuracy about earnings calculations, or an account balance as of a specified date) and enable them to come to an alternate solution if the plan's approach is not satisfactory to them.