Dividing Your Retirement Benefit For Family Support

This section describes the rights and responsibilities of the parties and the plan if a spouse, former spouse, child or other dependent seeks a portion or all of your retirement benefits. It addresses the following:

• What is a Qualified Domestic Relations Order?
• What is an alternate payee?
• When can an alternate payee receive payment under QDRO?

Can your retirement benefit be attached for family support?

In general, your retirement benefits cannot be taken away from you by people to whom you owe money. The law makes a limited exception, however, when family support is at stake. Thus, a State authority with jurisdiction over such matters can award part or all of your benefit to your spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent by issuing a qualified domestic relations order, which must be honored by the plan. The person named in such an order is called an alternate payee. The award can be made in a variety of forms.

What requirements must be met for a domestic relations order to be qualified?

When a plan receives a domestic relations order purporting to divide retirement benefits, it must first determine whether the order is a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO). The order must relate to child support, alimony, or marital property rights and be made under State domestic relations law. To be "qualified" the order should clearly specify your name and last known mailing address and the name and last known address of each alternate payee. It also must state the name of your plan; the amount or percentage 'or the method of determining the amount or percentage' of the benefit to be paid to the alternate payee; and the number of payments or time period to which the order applies. The order cannot provide a type or form of benefit not otherwise provided under the plan and cannot require the plan to provide an actuarially increased benefit. And if an earlier QDRO applies to your benefit, the earlier QDRO takes precedence over a later one.