Summary of Utah Law Relating to Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO's)

In general, retirement assets which were acquired during a marriage constitute marital property that are divided between the spouses when a marriage ends in divorce. The most common retirement assets include: Pension plan through an employer, IRA, Roth IRA, 401k, Military Retirement, Railroad Retirement, Federal Civil Service Retirement, and State Retirement.

As a general rule, each spouse is entitled to half of the retirement investments which were created during the marriage, regardless of who created them and/or which spouse has "title".

The formula used by the Utah courts for dividing retirement assets is derived from the Utah Supreme Court's decision in the case of Woodward v. Woodward, 656 P.2d 431, 433-34 (Utah 1982). Typically, the judge will multiply one-half of the value of the account by the number of years married and divide that by the total number of years the employee worked. However, other factors, including the date on which the parties' separated, or misconduct by one of the spouses, can affect the manner in which a retirement asset (or any other marital asset) is divided).

Once a final decree of divorce is entered, and if a retirement account is to be split or transferred to the other spouse, a special order must be created called a Qualified Domestics Relations Order, or QDRO for short. Utah QDRO forms are available for download online. The following websites provide qualified domestic relations orders that are accepted by the Utah courts:

http://www.divorcetoday.com

http://www.qdropedia.com