I was awarded a portion of my spouse’s retirement account. How do I receive my portion? (Kristen Senkyr)

The first thing that you need to do is hire an attorney to prepare a qualified domestic relations order for you. That’s called a QDRO. A QDRO is a court order that is sent to the plan administrator of the retirement plan that will divide the asset at the end of your divorce. You really need to hire an attorney to help you with this process because they’re very difficult to prepare and they’re very difficult to deal with the plan administrator at the end. There’s a lot of follow up and a lot of follow through so you really do need to hire an attorney to help you with this process.