As a married couple, you and your spouse have likely long-planned to retire together. You knew that your spouse was earning retirement benefits through their job. Your goal was to use those benefits to retire after your spouse’s career ended.
But now you are getting divorced, and you are worried that you are going to lose access to those benefits. This can be especially concerning if you are nearing retirement age, perhaps even pursuing a gray divorce. A qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) may be able to help.
Dividing future benefits
The retirement benefits your spouse earned during the marriage likely qualify as a marital asset. It is true that your spouse may not have retired yet, so they are not actively receiving those benefits. But they still need to go through property division because they are a marital asset that you are also entitled to, just like your spouse’s other earnings.
A qualified domestic relations order can be used to set up this division in advance. The court can consider factors like the length of your marriage and your personal assets and determine what percentage of the retirement benefits should go to you. The QDRO then establishes this percentage, and your spouse has to divide the benefits with you once they actually retire and begin receiving them.
By planning in advance, you can preserve your right to those benefits in the future, giving yourself the financial security you always believed you would have. To ensure that everything is set up correctly, it can be helpful to work with an experienced attorney.
