Timothy Sumer

Tutorial video in a series of DIY divorce videos explaining how to join a retirement plan to a divorce case using FL-372 and other court forms. “Joinder” means to make the retirement plan a party to your divorce case. Some retirement plan require you to join them to the divorce case before they will honor a QDRO or Qualified Domestic Relations Order. Usually, you do not have to worry about joinder. However, most retirement plans that are associated with a California public entity, for example, a retirement that was earned by working for a city, a county, the State of California or some other public entity in California, will not honor a QDRO unless the public entity has been made a party to the divorce action. This means you have to “join” the retirement plan to your divorce case. You accomplish the joinder by completing three Judicial Council forms, filing those forms with the court clerk, and then mailing filed-endorsed copies of the forms, together with a blank