I have successfully divided pensions from many companies including General Motors, New York State Teachers, New York State Pension System, the U.S. Military and Federal government, just to name a few.
Most times the drafting and approval of a QDRO is a pretty routine matter but some interesting situations do come up that I have been able to resolve successfully for my clients as indicated below:
Arrears – You should have your QDRO filed before your ex-spouse retires because if your QDRO is not filed before retirement, the pension plan does not have any paper work directing payments to be made to you. If a QDRO is filed after your ex-spouse retires you are entitled to the payments that you missed receiving. I have had several situations where a QDRO was filed late and I obtained a Court Order directing my client to receive up to $21,000 in arrears. The case law is clear that if it was agreed that a pension will be divided at the time of divorce, then all of the pension payments are to be shared, including those missed due to the late filing of a QDRO.
Improper QDRO – Often times a QDRO prepared by another attorney is simply done wrong, which can result in a mistake costing thousands of dollars. I have obtained Court Orders for my clients, which reduced the amount they were to pay to their ex-spouse by $400 to $1,000 per month due to mistakes I found in the QDRO prepared by another attorney.
The bottom line is that someone advertising to prepare your QDRO for you at a cost of $250 to $350, who is lot licensed to practice law in New York State, does not have the time and ability to put forth the efforts mentioned above.