How do you functionally divide retirement in an Oregon divorce?
How do you functionally divide retirement in an Oregon divorce? Once we've determined that there's retirement accounts that need to be divided, now we need to deal with the functional division of those accounts. That is done by qualified Domestic Relations order or a Quadro. A Quadro is an order that gets sent to the judge. The judge signs it. That then goes to the plan administrator, whether it's purse, whether it's a 401K. Those items, once delivered to the plan administrator, effectuate the actual division. One of the common misconceptions is when we divide a retirement account that it's taxed, say, a 401K, which is funded with pre tax dollars. Generally, that is something that would be taxed when withdrawn. A division incident to divorce is not a taxable event. So those gross dollars that are in a 401K get divided into two accounts presumptively, one for husband, one for wife with no tax penalty at all. At all. Once they're withdrawn, that's where the tax penalty occurs. Income taxes. If there's early withdrawal penalty, those happen then, but not during the Quadrant process, not when divided incident to divorce.