Although Qualified Domestic Relations Orders are the vehicles by which most qualified retirement plans are distributed at the time of divorce, they are not the appropriate tool for distributing federal government retirement benefits because federal government plans are specifically exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
Since enactment of the Retirement Equity Act of 1984, which permits retirement plan participants to assign portions of their interests in their plans to former spouses by authorizing plans to honor QDROs, QDROs have become a way of life for matrimonial practitioners.
