Divorced in 1991 with No QDRO but 1/2 Pension to Exwife

[simpsonwpc]

My divorce from Washington was final in February 1991 while I was stationed in Georgia with the US Army. As part of the decree my exwife was to get half my pension from Prudential, previously vested while we were married, but no QDRO was prepared at that time. The current value of the pension is less than $500/month.

So it's now time to apply for payment of pension benefits and I'm totally lost as to what I do to get the pension papers processed. The folks at Prudential told me I had to go to some site to get information, but everything I see appears for individuals currently going through a divorce and the QDRO is just one more piece of the divorce papers. I live in Utah and my exwife lives in Washington, in the same county the court order for the divorced was issued. I'm a bit lost as to how to move ahead. Does this thing need to be handled in Washington or Utah? Nothing I ready has given me any clue as to how to get this done.

[Lou S.]

Good luck. Likely you will need an attorney who is versed in drafting QDROs to put the 1991 divorce settlement into terms the Plan will accept as a QDRO.

[QDROphile]

The domestic relations order can be arranged through the Washington court that issued the original divorce decree. It is possible that the order can be arranged through a Utah court -- that would be a matter of Utah domestic relations law and would possibly be affected by whether or not there is a dispute over terms. If all that is to be done is to satisfy requirements for a QDRO, the easiest approach would be to go through the Washington court with a domestic relations order that implements the terms of the divorce decree with respect to the retirement plan. The domestic relations order IS just one more piece of the divorce papers, with a long time gap since the last piece. The time gap could create some minor complications that will not seem minor if you are trying to do this yourself.

[Kevin C]

Did the divorce decree include the following?

1.

The name and last known mailing address (if any) of the participant and the name and mailing address of each alternate payee covered by the order;

2.

The amount or percentage of the participant's benefits to be paid by the qualified retirement plan to each such alternate payee or the manner in which such amount or percentage is to be determined;

3.

The number of payments or period to which the order applies; and

4.

The qualified retirement plan to which the order applies.

The current addresses can be provided separately. If the decree has these items in it, the divorce decree could meet the requirements to be a QDRO. Some decrees have sufficient detail, some don't.

[My 2 cents]

Shouldn't the ex-spouse be the one worrying about this? If the plan administrator won't accept a copy of the divorce decree (has that been tried?) as a QDRO, wouldn't the plan have to pay each month's benefit solely to the original poster? Seems to me that it would be in the ex-spouse's interest to do what is needed to effectuate the relevant part of the participant's benefit.

Is there a current spouse? That would make it even more critical for the ex-spouse to make sure that everything is in order.

[jpod]

It may be in the participant's interest too. With a QDRO everything paid to ex-spouse is taxed to her. If per divorce decree he simply pays over money to ex-spouse, which it seems he is compelled to do, it's all taxed to him and he may not be entitled to an offsetting deduction.