QDRO not in place, was kicked back twice

I received half of my exes retirement. The QDRO has been sent back twice. In the mean time ex was terminated from job. The agreement to give half was awarded in the final decree. Would plan give him all of retirement because he was fired before the plan approved the QDRO?

If proper procedures were followed in court and with the plan, the pension is preserved and suspended for a reasonable time until resolution of qualification of the domestic relations order. However, having domestic relations order “sent back twice” does not bode well for following proper procedures or knowing WFT needs to be done.

Exactly.  To @penpen, just in case you are not aware, your reference is probably to a draft DRO.  Since it becomes a QDRO only when the plan administrator approves it, it's OK (even recommended) to start with a draft.  AS @QDROphile implies, the "twice" could imply that the drafting party(ies) are not familiar with the procedures and/or not sufficiently familiar with QDROs.  But, ultimately the goal is to get it right, so don't give up and get the third draft completed!

I’m never surprised if a DRO is kicked back once. I’m always surprised if the drafting party causes one to get kicked back twice. 
 

Because the critical aspect of my response has been emphasized, I wanted to reiterate the reassuring part. I doubt that it is your fault that the plan has rejected submissions. The plan will not give your ex spouse the entire retirement benefit simply because of firing before the plan accepts your court order as a qualified domestic relations order. However, if certain things happen, or fail to happen, after the firing and before the order is determined to be qualified, you could lose your entire interest in the benefit. It is too complicated to walk through the possible scenarios and touch on all of the procedural requirements to be able to say that you are completely safe. It appears that the plan has been engaged, has been notified of the domestic relations proceeding, has received communication about the award of an interest to you, and will continue to be engaged in processing what you hope will eventually be a QDRO.  This probably protects you as long as the as qualification processing is being pursued diligently. The devil is in the details and there are many devilish details that we do not know. Next to incompetence, delay is your biggest concern.

15 hours ago, Bill Presson said:

I’m never surprised if a DRO is kicked back once. I’m always surprised if the drafting party causes one to get kicked back twice. 

I've run into a lot of lazy drafters lately.  Reusing the same DRO over and over, often having incorrect plan names and other things left over from the previous DRO.  We kick it back and they change half of the items we asked them to correct. Some will even get the order signed without fixing all the items....  

"I received half of my exes retirement. IF YOU RECEIVED YOUR HALF, WHY ARE YOU POSTING THIS MESSAGE?  I ASSUME YOU MEANT THAT THE COURT AWARDED YOU "HALF" IN THE JUDGMENT OF DIVORCE OR BY INCORPORATING A WRITTEN AGREEMENT INTO THE JUDGMENT OF DIVORCE, BUT YOU FIRST SENTENCE IS NOT CLEAR.  WHAT WE NEED IS A TIMELINE.  IF THERE WAS A WRITTEN AGREEMENT, WHAT WAS THE DATE OF THAT AGREEMENT?  WHAT WAS THE DATE OF THE JUDGMENT OF ABSOLUTE DIVORCE?  WHAT WAS THE DATE THE QDRO WAS FIRST SENT TO THE PLAN ADMINISTRATOR?  WHAT DID THE PLAN ADMINISTRATOR SAY WAS THE REASON THE QDRO WAS SENT BACK TWICE? 

The QDRO has been sent back twice. In the mean time ex was terminated from job. WHEN WAS YOUR EX TERMINATED FROM HIS JOB?  HAS HE REMOVED ALL OF THE FUNDS FROM HIS RETIREMENT ACCOUNT THAT I ASSUME WAS A 401(K)?  IF IT WAS NOT A 401(K) WHAT WAS IT?  

The agreement to give half was awarded in the final decree. Would plan give him all of retirement because he was fired before the plan approved the QDRO?  TIMING IS EVERYTHING.  IF HE TERMINATED HIS EMPLOYMENT, WHETHER FIRED OR QUIT, AND NO QDRO HAD BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE PLAN ADMINISTRATOR,  HE COULD TAKE EVERYTHING OUT OF HIS 401(K) WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU AND WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT.  IF YOUR ATTORNEY SENT A "NOTICE OF ADVERSE INTEREST/CLAIM" TO THE PLAN ADMINISTRATOR IMMEDIATELY AT THE TIME THE AGREEMENT WAS SIGNED OR THE JUDGMENT OF DIVORCE WAS ENTERED, THE PLAN ADMINISTRATOR WOULD LIKELY HOLD ONTO YOUR SHARE PENDING AGREEMENT OF THE PARTIES OR ORDER OR COURT.   

YOU CANNOT GET A USEFUL ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS UNLESS YOU SET FORTH ALL THE FACTS.   IT WOULD HELP IF YOU GAVE US NAME OF THE PLAN YOU ARE DEALING WITH SINCE THEIR ARE 175,000 DIFFERENT PENSION AND RETIREMENT PLANS IN THE USA AND YOU ARE ASKING US TO GUESS.