Family & Safety
Worried about doing this on your own? You may be able to get free legal help.
During a divorce, retirement accounts and pensions can be a big issue. They can be the most valuable thing that married couples own. Spouses should be sure to list their retirement or pensions on their financial affidavits. Spouses may want to ask the court to divide the accounts as a part of equitable division of assets and debts in a divorce. Unlike bank accounts, which spouses can do on their own, dividing retirement accounts require that the retirement or pension plan process the account division.
The court cannot divide all retirement accounts between spouses. They may only divide the parts that are considered “marital property .” If a spouse pays into a retirement account or pension during the marriage, at least part of that account or pension is marital property. It does not matter that only one spouse's income was paid into the account.
A retirement account divided by the court at the time of the divorce does not mean that the money can be used right away.
Usually, retirement accounts require a special order to be entered for these accounts to be divided. So, spouses have to ask the court to issue one of these orders in addition to the order to finalize their divorce. These are called Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) or Qualified Illinois Domestic Relations Orders (QILDROs).
The requirements for these QDROS and QILDROs vary across different plans. Each plan has very specific requirements for the orders, which the spouses must consider carefully. Even if couples have represented themselves in the divorce, they may consider hiring an attorney specifically to draft these documents, as they can be complicated.
If dividing retirement accounts is an issue in a divorce case, each spouse should talk to a lawyer . You should seek help and find facts about the accounts early in the case.
Worried about doing this on your own? You may be able to get free legal help.
