Divorce and IPERS Benefits
Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) |
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Effect of QDROs on IPERS Benefits
An IPERS retirement benefit is generally dependent on 4 factors: your (the member's) age at retirement, quarters of covered employment, final average salary, and classification as a regular or Special Service member. IPERS retirement benefits are paid as a monthly, lifetime annuity. The Plan offers various benefit payment options (for more information about the available benefit payment options, see the Member Handbook or "Nearing Retirement" brochure).
Shared Payment
IPERS only accepts a shared payment method for dividing your benefit. Under the shared payment method, the actual benefit payments made to you (and if applicable, payments to beneficiaries) are split. The alternate payee does not receive any payments until you begin to receive payments. If you are already receiving benefits, the alternate payee may begin to receive the payee's share of the benefit after the domestic relations order is accepted by IPERS as a QDRO.
IPERS does not have the ability to value your account and divide it into two separate accounts. Accordingly, a QDRO cannot give an alternate payee the right to receive a portion of your accrued retirement benefit at a time and in a form different from that elected by you. Since benefits are shared, when developing QDROs, consideration should be given to death benefits available under the various payment options available to you.
Service Factor
The IPERS model QDRO uses the “service factor” method to determine the percentage of the pension benefit that should be considered marital property. Here's how the factor is calculated:
| __ % X |
Period of time that the member participated
in the Plan during the marriage |
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Total period of time used in
calculating benefits |
IPERS Does Not Provide Present Value Calculations
IPERS does not provide lump-sum present value calculations of your accrued retirement benefits. You and your spouse may stipulate the value of pension benefits that will be treated as marital property, or you may obtain a present value calculation from an independent expert. IPERS will accept reasonable requests for Plan information to use in preparing these calculations.
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