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Some service providers allow a person other than the participant to participate in a telephone conversation if the participant, once sufficiently identified, says he or she grants permission for the other person to participate in the conversation and the participant remains on the telephone call.

If he is getting divorced all of his marital assets are subject to division under state equitable distribution or community property laws. Court will determine spouse's interest in client's pension. Participant needs to wait until divorce decree and qdros are approved before changing beneficiaries.

Without remarking on the circumstances Pammie57 describes, . . . . If ERISA governs an employee-benefit plan, ERISA preempts State law. A plan or its administrator may set standards about whether to recognize a power of attorney. A plan’s sponsor or administrator may set those standards without following any State’s law. A plan’s administrator may recognize a power even if it is invalid under State law. A plan’s administrator may decline to recognize a power despite the power’s validity under all States’ laws. In reviewing an administrator’s decision, courts may apply the Federal common law of ERISA, even if doing so leads to a different outcome than evaluating a power under State law. For an ERISA-governed employee-benefit plan that grants discretion to the plan’s administrator (as almost all do more than a quarter-century after Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Bruch), a court defers to the administrator’s reasoned decision about whether to recognize an agent who seeks to act under a power of attorney. See, for example, United Refining Company Incentive Savings Plan for Hourly Employees v. Morrison, No. 1:12-cv-238 (W.D. Pa. Nov. 22, 2013); Pension Committee Heileman-Baltimore Local 1010 IBT Pension Plan v. Bullinger, No. 1:92 Civ. 00204, 16 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1024, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17325, 1992 WL 333653 (D. Md. Oct. 29, 1992); Clouse v. Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England Railroad Co., 787 F. Supp. 93 (E.D. Pa. 1992). If the participant asked a question of the plan’s administrator, the administrator’s fiduciary responsibilities, including the duty of communication, might require it to respond. If the plan document doesn’t state provisions for which powers are recognized or refused, and the plan’s administrator hasn’t yet adopted procedures, now might be a time to develop procedures.