Many retirement plan administrators require a special court order called a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) in order to divide the retirement plan. Generally, this occurs after your judgment of divorce is entered, and is specifically ordered by your judgment. But the judgment itself is usually insufficient to divide the account. You need a QDRO to do that.
We work in a neutral capacity to interface with retirement plan administrators, draft, and submit QDROs to divide retirement plans.