Dividing Pensions in Divorce: Negotiating and Drafting Safe Settlements with QDROs and Present Values, Third Edition

Dividing Pensions in Divorce: Negotiating and Drafting Safe Settlements with QDROs and Present Values provides an expert chronological analysis on every important issue regarding Qualified Domestic Relations Orders and present values. Don't lose thousands of dollars in assets by being fooled by incomplete and inaccurate pension present values - Dividing Pensions in Divorce will help you:

• Understand complex present value issues
• Draft airtight QDROs that maximize your clients’ property rights
• Prepare for trial with detailed guidance on a host of commonly litigated issues
• And more!

Written by Gary Shulman, David Kelley and Daniel Kelley, nationally recognized pension experts with more than 60 years of combined pension and actuarial experience, Dividing Pensions in Divorce delivers proven techniques and strategies the authors have honed in drafting and reviewing over 100,000 QDROs and 80,000 present values.

Benefit from their experience with:

• Clear, straightforward explanations of over 300 points of law, including disability pensions, the role of Social Security in dividing pensions, survivorship rights, early retirement subsidies, the coverture formula, and more
• Winning strategies for complying with even the most complex legal, regulatory, and legislative requirements
• State-of-the-art model QDROs you can easily adapt to your own cases
• Step-by-step analysis of how a present value is calculated
• Case studies, attorney's checklists, and sample questions for opposing experts
• And much more!

Dividing Pensions in Divorce protects you with specific advice organized chronologically from the first client interview, through the discovery process and the preparation and drafting of the settlement agreements, QDROs and present values.The authors provide you with precise language, model forms and letters as well as the best (and time-tested) model QDROs in the business.

Dividing Pensions in Divorce will give you the confidence to handle any challenging pension issue. It will soon be second-nature for you to:

• Craft a safe settlement agreement for your client that secures your client's pension benefit entitlements
• Argue the major pension and 401(k) issues so that your negotiations are convincing to the other side - and the court - as reasonable, fact and standard-based conclusions
• Understand and draft the critical language that should be included in every separation agreement
• Demystify the world of QDROs by reviewing the seven essential areas every QDRO must address
• And much more!

Part I: Analyzing and Planning

• Overview of Dividing Pensions and 401(k)s
• Meeting Your Client
• Discovering the Retirement Benefits
• Selecting the Right Vehicle to Divide Retirement Benefits
• Determining the Marital Portion of a Pension
• Tracing the Marital Portion of a 401(k)
• Securing Income for Life with Survivorship
• Determining Retirement Subsidies, Supplements and COLA
• Unraveling Disability Pensions
• Computing Pension Present Values
• Avoiding Malpractice in Present Values
• Dividing Social Security
• Choosing Between QDRO and Offsetting Assets
• Separate Interest v. Shared Payment QDROs
• Reducing Assets for Taxes
• Drafting the Separation Agreement
• Drafting a "Proper" QDRO for Pensions and 401(k)s
• Avoiding QDRO Malpractice Traps
• Handling the Executive Divorce

Part II: Discussing a Settlement

• Preparing Your Client for the Settlement Conference
• Conducting the Settlement Conference

Part III: Drafting the Orders

• Dealing With the Plan Administrator
• Dividing Military Pensions
• Dividing Civil Service Pensions
• Dividing Railroad Pensions
• Dividing State Government Plans
• Drafting QDROs for Cash Balance Plans
• Drafting QDROs to Collect Past-Due Child Support

Part IV: Litigating the Case

• Understanding Actuarial Statistics
• Litigating Present Values
• Litigating the QDRO