Struggling to figure out the balance of my corporate 401K pre-marriage. Employer no longer has records or statements back to my date of marriage, 20 years ago. I worked for the company 13 years before getting married. How would we determine the portion of the retirement account that would not be marital assets?
There are several ways to do this. First, you could hire a CPA to estimate what he or she believes the separate portion and marital portion of the 401(k) is. They will account for past gains/losses attributed to market fluctuations and contributions. Or, you can simply pro-rate the balance. For instance, if you contributed for 33 years and were married for 20, you could calculate what the average annual balance was, and multiply that by 20 to arrive at a figure that could indicated what the marital portion of the account is.