"What happens to the retirement account after a divorce?" is not one question. It is at least two, and the answer turns on which instrument you are holding. An IRA and an employer plan — a 401(k), a 403(b), a pension — are different legal animals. Same household, two rulebooks. [Federal] On an ERISA-covered employer plan, the plan pays whoever the plan document names. A divorce decree by itself does not redirect it. The Supreme Court settled that in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff: federal law preempts the state statutes that would have revoked the designation automatically. The Department of Labor says it plainly — without a valid order, an ERISA plan can only pay under the terms of the written plan, no matter what the decree says. Moving those benefits to a former spouse generally takes a qualified domestic relations order — a QDRO — that the plan administrator reviews and accepts. Without one, the plan follows the form on file. An IRA is not an ERISA plan, so it sits outside that frame entirely. State revocation-on-divorce laws may strike an ex-spouse designation, or may not, depending on the state and the custodian. Same oversight. Two different outcomes. A composite couple, call them the Okonkwos. After the divorce, one balance was a rollover IRA. Another sat in a former employer's 401(k). Identical intentions, two different results available. Your will rewrites neither one. The plan document or the beneficiary form stays the map until it is changed under the rules that apply to that specific account. Write one word next to every retirement balance you hold: IRA or PLAN. Then ask that custodian or administrator which beneficiary they currently show. If a former spouse appears on either, that is a conversation with your attorney — and where a plan is involved, possibly with family-law counsel too. Educational only. Not legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a prediction of any particular outcome. Confirm your own accounts with your advisors.