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The PA screwed up, but not the way you think. The PA should have either determined that the order was not qualified or stated as part of the determination that the PA would not enforce the provision about the election, which should have resulted in amendment of the Order by the parties. PAs are required to follow plan terms and cannot interfere with participant elections provided by the plan. Someone will argue with this assertion, and I will not engage in the argument. The direction in the Order for the participant to elect a form benefit and designate a survivor is enforceable by the state court, through its powers of contempt, which is an inappropriate and usually ineffective approach to achieving desired division of the benefits. This points to a possible mistake of the drafter of the Order (someone’s lawyer?). One would need to know more about the plan, the terms of the Order, and the facts, but it may have been impossible at the crucial time for the alternate payee to have been named as survivor, which leads back to a possible mistake by the PA in determining qualification.

Thanks! The photo is my son, actually. He's now an eagle scout and is already in college! Boy, time sure flies by when working on this exciting pension stuff!