If the court makes an award of pension rights. It should enter something called a Qualified Domestic Relations Order directing the pension administrator to comply with the award. Preparation of that order will cause the parties legal fees to be higher. This basically means that each parent has the legal rights of parents. For example, the right to ones child's school or medical records.
Physical custody refers to the parent with whom the child lives most of the time.
In a custody dispute the argument is over who will have physical custody. There are a number of factors courts rely upon to decide who should have physical custody. For young children it's usually the parent who may be closest to the child. Teenagers, generally live with whichever parent they choose to be with. A third category is Joint Physical Custody.