QDRO Corner: Titling Court Orders to Divide Retirement Interests

ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) provides the protections for retirement interests for employees of private companies. The terms and regulations in ERISA are commonly used language in this area of law. Most notably the terms “domestic relations order” and “qualified domestic relations order” come from ERISA; however, these terms only apply to plans governed by ERISA.

Federal, state, and local government plans are specifically exempt from ERISA. This exemption means that plans provided by federal, state, and local governments can be non-divisible and non-transferrable, even by court order. If you are representing a spouse of a government employee, be sure to review the plan documents to understand whether the plan can be divided, and if so, what type of order the plan will accept.

Since government plans are not subject to ERISA, they do not use the term “qualified domestic relations order” and certain plans will reject the order on those grounds alone. Popular terms used for government plans in the Washington D.C. Metro area include Court Order Acceptable for Processing (federal government for Federal Employees’ Retirement System and Civil Service Retirement System), Qualifying Court Order federal government for the Thrift Savings Plan); and Eligible Domestic Relations Order (Maryland State Pension System).

The plan document or summary plan document should include the preferred term for any plan as well as any information regarding limitations on divisibility or transferability of interest. Be sure to request these documents early in your representation of a client to best negotiate on their behalf, or to ask the Court for proper relief.

If you have any QDRO questions, please reach out to Veronica Dulin at vdulin@markhamlegal.com.