Need Help in Determining Amount that my Ex gets

[jkc2]

I am new to this forum and need help determining how much does my ex will get in QDRO Distribution.

Here is the language in our MSA according to which, she is entitled to half of portion of marital value but she is not entitled to passive gains that occurred due to premarital balance.

'The parties shall divide the amount in the 401k for husband equally and in-kind in accordance with the following: the parties shall equally divide those funds accumulated in the account between the date of marriage April 2012 to date of filing for complaint of divorce May 2014, plus or minus any market
appreciation or depreciation on the aforesaid funds until the date of distribution. any contributions(including any market appreciation and/or market depreciation thereon) made my the husband to the retirement account prior to the date of the marriage and after the date of the filing of the complaint for divorce shall not be included in the portion of the plan to be equally divided by the parties.'

Below are the values o​f my 401k account

Value at date of Marriage:- $48812

Value at date of filing of Divorce:- $104819

Contributions made during the marriage:- $30994

Increase in Value during the marriage :- ($104819-$48812) - $ 56007

Increase in Value due to gains(not contributions) during the marriage - ($56007-$30994) = $25014

So while my Ex is entitled to Half of $30994(Contributions), she is not entitled to half of $25014. This amount($25014) has the gains also due to premarital balance.

Can someone please help me provide a number which my Ex- gets and how is it calculated based on the MSA..

Thanks

[CADMT]

This is a relatively common valuation in the disposition of assets in a divorce. There are many who perform these calculations/valuations as a living (including myself). Someone here might agree to do the valuation pro bono. However, if no one does, there are many firms that will do it for a relatively low fee.

Whoever does it for you will need the plan statements which provide a time phased accounting of the gains and/or losses and contributions with which to calculate the marital value, because this value changes over time (the premarital percentage decreases and the marital percentage increases, due to marital contributions). Using that information they can arrive at a final division of marital/premarital.

Absent the contributions you could just divide the premarital balance by the total account balance and apply that fraction to the gains and losses to determine the marital portion. It's the contributions that creates the complexity.

[Mike Preston]

The results can surprise you. Assume you hire somebody (and give them periodic account statements [assume monthly, for example]) and they find the following (admittedly extreme) facts:

Value as predetermined in April of 2012: $48,812

Value determined as of April of 2013: $0 [i said it was extreme]

Value as of May 2013 after $30,994 contribution made on May 1, 2013: $30,994

Value as of May 1, 2014: $104,819

Under those facts, magically (and sadly) 100% of the account is now attributable to the marital period and your spouse is entitled to 1/2 of the total: $52,409!!!!!

So, how the Gain/Loss presents itself over time and the timing of the actual contributions can lead to a result of somewhere between $15,497 [also an extreme example, but the other direction] and $52,409!!!!!

By the way, the fact that you are asking a question as to how the amount is to be determined is evidence of the fact that the language of your settlement agreement, if copied into a domestic relations order, should be rejected by the plan because they would have those same questions. Best to tighten up the language a bit before having the DRO presented to the plan. In order to do it efficiently, you would need to know whether the accounts are individually directed or whether some portion of the plan uses pooled investments. If the former, how often are statements made available and how many of those have you kept? If the latter, how often does the plan value the funds (probably annually, but I've seen quarterly)? Is there a mixture of the two?

You also need to know whether the company made any contributions for the 2013 or 2014 years after 5/1/2014 and agree what portion of those amounts should be marital (usually 100% for contributions attributable to 2013 and 33.33% for those attributable to 2014).

Good luck!