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ERISA Claim Appeal Rights for QDRO Participant


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Facts: Employee (participant) has a QDRO designating that his ex-wife receive ALL of his benefits under the 401(k) Plan. 

Employee is now requesting documentation from the Plan that his ex-wife stated receiving benefits under the Plan. The Plan Administrator does not wish to provide this information to employee.

Question: In denying the employee's request, is Plan Administrator obligated to provide the standard ERISA claims procedure rights (appeal process, etc)? In essence, is an employee who no longer has any benefits under the Plan as a result of a QDRO still deemed a Plan Participant? And if so, must he/she receive notice of ERISA rights to appeal?

Your insights are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Huh?  Are you saying the QDRO has been finalized and the amount paid/transferred to the AP?  If so, the participant's next statement will show the amount leaving his account. 

I'm a retirement actuary. Nothing about my comments is intended or should be construed as investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. Occasionally, but not all the time, it might be reasonable to interpret my comments as actuarial or consulting advice.

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Based on the stated facts it seems that he is still an eligible participant so he is a "participant" for purposes of the ERISA disclosure requirements and a valid claimant under the Claims Procedures rules.  However, I don't see how he could possibly be entitled to information about his ex-spouse's account or that this would even be a matter that is subject to the Claims Procedures.  He may have a perfectly valid reason for wanting/needing the information, but that doesn't mean he is entitled to get it from the Plan.   

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41 minutes ago, david rigby said:

If so, the participant's next statement will show the amount leaving his account. 

His statement would show transfer out to AP's account, but that doesn't mean the AP has taken a distribution of the account from the plan. AP could still be maintaining the account in the plan.

Kenneth M. Prell, CEBS, ERPA

Vice President, BPAS Actuarial & Pension Services

kprell@bpas.com

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Thank you for the response thus far. 

44 minutes ago, david rigby said:

Huh?  Are you saying the QDRO has been finalized and the amount paid/transferred to the AP?  If so, the participant's next statement will show the amount leaving his account. 

Yes, the QDRO was finalized. AP get 100% of participant's benefit. Employer recently terminated the Plan, so Participant became fully vested and thus AP started receiving benefits. 

9 minutes ago, jpod said:

Based on the stated facts it seems that he is still an eligible participant so he is a "participant" for purposes of the ERISA disclosure requirements and a valid claimant under the Claims Procedures rules.  However, I don't see how he could possibly be entitled to information about his ex-spouse's account or that this would even be a matter that is subject to the Claims Procedures.  He may have a perfectly valid reason for wanting/needing the information, but that doesn't mean he is entitled to get it from the Plan.   

Thank you, this is the heart of the issue...in denying the Participant's request for ex-spouse's account information, is there even an argument that could be made for why it could be necessary to include the standard ERISA Claims appeal process language? My feeling is no, but would be curious if anyone believes it could be necessary to include. 

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Also, as a point of clarification, the former employee is asking for a letter from the Plan stating that his ex-wife started to collect the retirement benefit (not the particulars/amount). 

Would the former employee (as an eligible participant) otherwise have a right to this information?

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Admittedly having done no research on this, it's no longer his benefit, so I would think that not only is the plan not obligated to provide the information, it would be wrong to provide the information. What if he asked whether a co-worker had started receiving his/her benefit? (Although what possible adverse ramifications could there be if the plan stupidly did answer his question?)

And since the husband isn't making a claim for benefits, and he hasn't been denied anything (except information not applicable to his benefit), I don't see how the claims appeal process is possibly implicated.

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The participant would be allowed to request any information regarding his specific account.  However, there would be no extension of rights on another participant's (alternate payee or otherwise) balance or information.  The only recourse would seem to be the participant requesting the information from the ex-spouse/alternate payee.

ERPA

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