You are ready to work on your QILDRO after:
- You and your attorney have reviewed all pages in the Table of Contents at right.
- You have requested an IMRF pension estimate and reviewed it with your attorney.
- All parties have come to an agreement on:
- Which of your IMRF benefits will be divided.
- How they will be divided.
A QILDRO can be completed and submitted to IMRF by:
- You
- Your alternate payee
- An attorney
IMRF strongly recommends that you obtain legal counsel when negotiating the division of your IMRF benefits.
Choosing a dollar amount or percentage
You will need to decide what calculation method you will use to specify what will be paid to your alternate payee. There are two different methods:
- Dollar amount
- Percentage
You and your alternate payee will choose a method for each benefit type you are dividing in your QILDRO. Your QILDRO can have:
- All dollar amounts
- All percentage amounts
- A combination of both.
Dollar Amount
With the dollar amount method, you choose a flat dollar amount that will be paid to your alternate payee. If you use dollar amounts, you can use a pension estimate to determine the dollar amount that will be paid to your alternate payee.
Your alternate payee will receive the exact amount stated in the QILDRO—even if your final benefit amount has increased or decreased from the time you completed the QILDRO.
If your QILDRO contains only dollar amounts, you do not have to do anything else once it has been accepted by IMRF. We will keep your QILDRO on file and refer to it at the time you apply for your benefits. (When you apply for benefits we will require an address confirmation from your alternate payee.)
Percentage
With the percentage method, you choose a specific percentage of your final benefit amount that will be paid to your alternate payee.
If you use percentages, your pension estimate will not be as helpful to you. The percentage QILDRO bases your alternate payee's amount on the final amount of your benefit—when you actually apply for it—while an estimate only shows you an estimated future benefit amount. If your final benefit amount is different from the amount shown on the estimate due to events that occur after your divorce, your alternate payee's amount will also be different.
If any part of your QILDRO contains percentages, you, your alternate payee, or an attorney will have to obtain a court-certified Calculation Order at the time you apply for benefits. By law, we cannot pay your alternate payee without a Calculation Order. (Click here for more information on the Calculation Order.)
Marital period or gross amount of final benefit (percentage QILDROs only)
If you use a percentage, you will also need to decide whether your alternate payee will be paid a percentage of benefits you earned during your marital period, or a percentage of your final gross benefit amount.
If you decide to apply the percentage to the marital period, you will:
- Need to complete and use the Marital Portion Benefit Calculation Formula in Section IX of the QILDRO form.
- Have to decide if you are including regular service only, or regular and any permissive service you may have.
- Regular service is service you earned while participating in IMRF. It also includes two types of service that can be purchased:
- Reinstated service you purchase to pay back a refund
- Omitted service (if you weren’t enrolled in IMRF when you should have been).
- Permissive service includes:
- Unused, unpaid sick leave credit
- Certain types of optional past service credit you may be able to purchase (if you are eligible). Examples of permissive service include military service and out-of-state service credit. You can read more about types of purchasing service credit at www.imrf.org, under your plan and tier.
Calculation Order overview (percentage QILDROs only)
If you use percentages in your QILDRO, you will need a Calculation Order. The Calculation Order is a court-certified document that shows the percentages in your QILDRO converted into the actual dollar amount your alternate payee will receive.
IMRF cannot calculate these amounts for you. We can only pay your alternate payee once we have a valid, court-certified Calculation Order that tells IMRF the exact amount(s) to be paid.
Do not complete a Calculation Order until you apply for your benefits. If you complete your Calculation Order before this, you are basing it on estimated numbers which may change. When you apply for benefits, IMRF will send you your final benefit amounts—you should use these figures to complete your Calculation Order. (Click here for how to complete a Calculation Order.)
With percentage QILDROs, IMRF cannot calculate what to pay your alternate payee based on the percentages in a QILDRO. We can only pay your alternate payee the exact amounts stated in a court-certified Calculation Order.