QDRO Administration Center

Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) are complex, non-standardized court orders that assign all or a portion of a participant’s retirement benefit to an alternate payee. These orders require a methodical, hands-on approach to ensure all parties involved are well-informed and receive the needed information in a timely manner. Attempts to standardize QDRO processing have been met with limited success. Some of the challenges faced in QDRO administration include:

Excessive timeframes to qualify, deny, or respond to questions related to DROs
Insufficient and/or inadequate communication with the offices of the attorneys representing the participants and the alternate payees
Boilerplate denials that do not provide sufficient information for the attorneys to appropriately amend the DRO language
Compartmentalized rather than comprehensive servicing resulting in a lack of clear accountability between an outsourcer’s QDRO team, Benefits Center and Administrative teams
Lost or misplaced incoming documents
Inaction on important, time-sensitive incoming documents including complaint letters from attorneys as well as subpoenas
Passive approach to client communications resulting in clients not being kept abreast of important DRO issues and situations such as subpoenas
Processing rigidity, not allowing for special handling nor demonstrating an understanding of the unique culture of the client and its attorneys
Lack of a high service model and approach
Increase in attorney unrest and unanswered subpoenas

In order to meet the increasingly complex demands of QDRO servicing, Strategic Benefits Advisors, Inc. provides clients with comprehensive servicing of DROs through its QDRO Servicing Center. Participants, alternate payees and the associated attorneys receive highly responsive, personalized assistance in all aspects in the administration of the QDRO.
For more information and details of SBA’s QDRO Center, please contact Jay Schmitt at 770-551-8989 x13 or jschmitt@sba-inc.com.