Dividing Colorado PERA Retirement Accounts With a DRO

Like most government retirement plans, the Colorado PERA retirement plans are unique as to the procedures which must be followed in order to divide those accounts pursuant to a divorce decree.

First, Colorado will not accept a QDRO because the PERA plan is not a qualified retirement plan. Instead, it is a type of government plan which uses a DRO instead of a QDRO.

Colorado PERA is unique because it will not accept a court order (called a DRO) which attempts to divide a PERA account if more than 90 days has passed since the date of the divorce decree.

Even though certain PERA restrictions and requirements may appear to be unfair, those rules and regulations have been upheld by the higher Colorado courts.

In other words, the requirements and restrictions of government plans must be closely followed and respected.

So, this means that you and your attorney have to be on the ball if you are going to divide a PERA plan with a divorce court order.

Except that PERA has recently published some “fixes” to the violation of the 90 day rule. One of them may work for you.

Otherwise, the privilege of dividing a PERA retirement plan may be lost.

Our PERA fee is still $450.