Separate Interest and Shared Payment Defined

[Guest Novice]

Most of the QDROs I review are not cut and dried in terms of discerning whether the intent of the author is that it be deemed a separate interest or a shared payment. I understand the difference between the two methods, however, is there a surefire way of determining whether a QDRO is one or the other? Obviously, there are implications in term of survivorship issues which leads me to my next question. In the case of a defined benefit plan, does the alternate payee ever have the right to designate a beneficiary, and if so under what circumsatnces?It seems to me that if this were the case, figuring the alternate payee's benefit would be contingent upon her/his beneficiary which would really influence the actuarial calculations and perhaps, given the beneficiary, call for an actuarially increased benefit to the alternate payee. If you can't tell, I am new at this. Any help would be appreciated.

[QDROphile]

Since there is no such thing as a truly "separate interest" QDRO, there is no sure fire way to have ready answers to all of the relevant questions. The answers are determined by the terms of the order, the terms of the plan, the terms of the written QDRO procedures and the law. The law is not settled on various points.