GETTING DIVORCED? HERE'S A COMMON MISTAKE THAT'S MADE WHEN DIVIDING A RETIREMENT PLAN

by Howard Phillips

Question: If one of the spouses in a divorce has a 401(K) Plan Account, and he/she had it at the Date of Marriage, how and when is it shared with the spouse who has no retirement plan (the Alternate Payee)?

Answer:

1) Choose the date when the account will be valued. This could be the date of the complaint; the date of the divorce; or the date that the participant partner receives the distribution.

2) Offset that value of the 401k Plan Account against some other asset in the marital estate valued as of the same date OR share the Account equally as of the date selected and stipulate to that sharing in a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO).

3) The determining of the date and the sharing process could result in a wide variety of results. For example:



- Account at Date of Marriage: $50K
- Account at Date of Complaint: $200K
- Account at Date of Distribution: $250,000
- Years in the Plan at Date of Complaint: 25
- Years in the Plan at Date of Marriage: 15

Here are some of the potential sharing scenarios (amount payable to the Alternate Payee, either as an offset to 50% of other marital assets; a distribution from the Plan; or a Direct Rollover to an Individual Retirement Account) for the 401k Plan Account:

- $100,000 as of the Date of Complaint
- $125K as of the Date of Distribution
- $40K as of the Date of Complaint (.5 times 10/25 times $200,000)

Conclusion: <a name="_GoBack"></a>The better that divorcing parties and their advisors are educated about their options of how to divide their retirement plan assets, the better their results will be.

These and other retirement plan issues that are experienced by a divorcing couple and their advisors are investigated in the recent publication "Dividing Retirement Plan Assets in a Divorce", which is available as a paperback and e-book on Amazon.com.



<a href="http://divorcepensionrights.com/dividingretirementassets/about-the-author/">Howard
Phillips</a> is a pension actuary, and has assisted companies and their employees
with the design, installation, and administration of their tax-qualified
retirement plans.Over his forty year career, Mr.
Phillips was President of Consulting Actuaries Incorporated and President and
Director of The American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries.<a href="http://divorcepensionrights.com/dividingretirementassets/">DIVIDING RETIREMENT PLAN ASSETS IN A DIVORCE</a> is his latest book.

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