What's an EDRO?

[BG5150]

I was looking around for a QDRO checklist, and I found one that was a combo QDRO/EDRO checklist. I ahvce never heard of an EDRO, and no one in my office seems to have heard of it eitehr. A search of Tripodi came up empty, too.

I Dogpiled "EDRO" and I found out it means "Eligible Domestic Relations Order." And it seems as though it only pops up in some publice employees' plans. So is it a PERS-specific kind of QDRO?

[QDROphile]

Since government plans can meet the non-assignment requirements with a domestic relations order that does not cover all the requirements of section 414(p), see section 414(p)(11), I suspect it is a term used to avoid the word "qualified" in the context of a government plan, lest someone get the idea that the govenment is requiring something under section 414(p) not compelled by section 414(p) for government plans. Of course, the government plan could have some requirement for an"eligible" domestic relations order that section 414(p) does not have.

[Peter Gulia]

QDROphile has it right. In an effort to communicate the possibility of significant differences from an ERISA-governed plan's QDRO, some States' laws use a different label for the form of order that's recognized by a governmental plan.

Illinois' statute expressly states that a QILDRO isn't the same as a QDRO, and that Federal law "shall not be deemed a guide to the interpretation of" the QILDRO statute.

In Illinois, a QILDRO.

In Michigan, an EDRO.

Under New York's 457(b) plan, a PCDRO (I'm not sure that's current.)

In Pennsylvania, an ADRO.

For citations to these laws, see Qs 13:36 to 13:38 in my Domestic Relations Orders chapter in Governmental Plans Answer Book.