If you are getting divorced as you near retirement age, you may be concerned about your financial future. After all, you and your spouse have been planning for retirement jointly. Maybe you have shared savings accounts, or maybe you are relying on your spouse’s pension plan when they retire.
But if you get divorced, how is that going to impact your ability to retire? Will you lose access to assets that you need, such as that pension plan?
Using a QDRO
There are ways to protect the assets that you deserve. For example, a pension plan or an employer-sponsored retirement plan that is earned during a marriage typically counts as a marital asset. You would have a right to a portion of that plan, generally based on what percentage of the plan was earned during your marriage.
For instance, say that the pension is going to pay $5,000 per month. Your spouse earned 80% of the pension during your marriage but will earn the following 20% after the divorce. A qualified domestic relations order could be used to give you 40% of the future pension payments – half of the 80% that was earned during the marriage. This means that you would still get $2,000 per month, and your ex-spouse would get $3,000 per month.
This is just a hypothetical example, and the numbers will be different in every case. But you can see why it is so important to understand what assets you deserve and what legal steps you can take to preserve them. It can help to have an experienced legal team on your side.
