Property division proceedings in Indianapolis are rarely easy due to the fact that they force you into relinquishing certain assets that you likely value very much. Your 401k is no doubt chief among these. You work hard throughout your professional career to earn funds that you can then rely on to support you during your retirement, and having to split even a portion of those funds with your ex-spouse may seem like a bitter pill to swallow. Even so, as contributions to your 401k during your marriage come from marital income, they must be included in your property division.
What, then, is the best way to share these funds with your ex-spouse? According to The 401k Help Center, the two most popular options are to either push to retain the full value of your 401k or roll your ex-spouse’s portion over into another retirement account. You can indeed keep the full value of your 401k; you simply would need to give up your stake in a comparable marital asset in return. While this allows you to keep your retirement plans on track, it is not something you should choose to do without first giving the matter a good deal of thought. Asking your ex-spouse to forgo their portion of their 401k means asking them to give up any potential income it might earn if left alone. Thus, the actual current value of their portion of your 401k might be much higher than you realize (and might require you to relinquish your claim to another valuable marital asset).
Rolling your ex-spouse’s portion into another retirement account does mean that you lose those funds. However, your ex-spouse might be much more inclined to accept this arrangement given the income potential it offers, thus helping to avoid any added contention in your proceedings.
