Retirement Division Red Flags and Foundational QDRO Basics

Natasha Tang specializes in the preparation of Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (“QDROs”) and has worked in the field since January 2013. In that time, she prepared thousands of QDROs for various retirement plans, including military, federal, public, and private plans. Additionally, she has reviewed and edited thousands of QDROs prepared by staff under her supervision. Known for her meticulous attention to detail, Natasha excels in various methods of calculating retirement benefits, including estimated rate of return calculations, tracing calculations and present value calculations.

Natasha is enthusiastic about empowering individuals during challenging times using techniques learned while obtaining her bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University of Los Angeles. She is committed to providing clear guidance and support throughout the process, making her a trusted resource in the realm of divorce and retirement division. Natasha not only cares about corporate social responsibility at QDROCounsel, but she also volunteers her time to help people struggling with financial hardships and trauma.

In addition to her substantive QDRO preparation experience, Natasha is a frequent speaker, teacher, and trainer on topics of QDROs, leadership, business management and divorce strategies. She also presented to various educational institutions, including Bryan University and Norco College, and to professional associations for attorneys and other professionals in family law, including Vesta, Divorce Transition Professionals, and Divorce with Dignity.

Natasha began her career in QDRO preparation working at QDRO Benefits Law Group, a firm owned and operated by Louise Nixon, a nationally renowned QDRO expert. The apprenticeship with Ms. Nixon, which lasted over a decade, led to her present expertise in retirement benefit division. While at QDRO Benefits Law Group, Natasha prepared numerous QDROs pro bono for clients of the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law.

Beginning in 2017, Natasha worked with Ms. Nixon and others to develop QDROCounsel, a software platform that automates the drafting of QDROs. As a QDRO Expert, she developed master QDRO templates for hundreds of retirement plans and worked with software developers to turn those templates into software. Natasha is the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Training for QDROCounsel. She co-created QDROCounsel’s case management system to help democratize access to QDRO services, which are frequently expensive and thus out of reach for a vast majority of litigants.

Natasha is the Director of Legal Services at the Center for Access to QDROs (“the Center”), an IOLTA-funded 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports legal aid organizations, self-help centers, and low-income litigants in California and Nevada with QDRO services. QDROCounsel donates an exclusive license to the software she helped create to the Center, which the Center makes available to legal aid and self-help center staff and uses internally to draft QDROs. She supervises all the client work performed at the Center and ensures the staff provides the highest quality QDRO services to legal aid partner organizations and their litigants.

Carrie Holmes is the Executive Director of the Center for Access to QDROs, where she works to ensure that low-income family law litigants actually receive the retirement benefits to which they are entitled – safeguarding an income that will allow them to live their older years with dignity. Carrie serves as the State Bar Appointee to the Judicial Council of California’s Information Technology Advisory Committee and is a member of the Legal Service Advisory Council for Paladin, a pro bono software platform. She also co-chairs Lawyers Club of San Diego’s Advocacy & Reproductive Justice Committee and volunteers with the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Judgment Assistance Day through the Beverly Hills Bar Association. Carrie is a “double Bruin,” having received both her undergraduate and law degrees at UCLA, and is a member of the 2023 cohort of “Bruin Excellence in Civic Engagement” honorees.

Previously, she was the Pro Bono Manager and Supervising Attorney at San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program and the Pro Bono Director at the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law. She began her career in private practice family law in Beverly Hills. She has also previously served as the co-chair of the Family Law Section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association and the co-chair of the Membership Development and Red, White, and Brew Committees of the Lawyers Club of San Diego.