david rigby

In general, plan sponsors (and the TPAs they hire) will do better to follow the plan document rather than the broker.

What? No FORTRAN?

Ask if a nearby law school and/or local bar association sponsors a "pro bono day"?

Umm ... the plan document will answer this question. Look for the definitions of "beneficiary" and "spouse". Hint: your "not sure when" comment might be important.

In my observation, most documents do not define "retire" or "retirement", at least not directly. Likely, in your example, it means a severance of employment on or after attaining whatever eligibility for any specific commencement date. Perhaps the plan defines Normal Retirement and/or Early Retirement?

Assuming your facts presented are complete (not being snarky, many postings here are "too brief"), she gets re-instated in the DB plan and offered whatever payment options the plan includes. The plan might not offer a lump sum option. BTW, if she was "...paid a monthly benefit..." and "...checks were never cashed...", that implies she (or someone) made an election to commence and also communicated a correct mailing address. Forgive me, but I'm suspicious; maybe the EE ignored the requests to complete an election form? First question might be, "What happened with the 401(k) plan?"

Clarification: you can't change the plan year after the end of the short plan year (ie, 12/31 in this example). BTW, if you want to show some consulting chops, you will ask the client why. Sometimes, there can be good reasons to leave the plan year unchanged even when the company fiscal year changes. (Asking why does not mean you are taking a position or being accusatory, just trying to help.)

Duplicate posts, for the purpose of getting wider readership, are OK. However, it's very helpful to have all responses in one place.

Duplicate posting. Please put all responses at this link:

Just to clarify, is the QDRO to provide a portion of your benefit to her? If so, her inaction effectively means the draft QDRO has been rejected, and that might, eventually, be equivalent to "no QDRO". It would be in her interest to help get the QDRO finalized. If she stonewalls, that might be in your interest. My parents always described this as "consequences".

IMHO, no you should not agree to that condition. Why? because it might only be theoretical (nothing wrong with that), or it might mean there is a future possibility of a "retirement incentive" to him, a portion of which might apply to you. Since such incentives can take many forms, it's likely impossible to know today whether it really applies to your portion of the benefit later. By signing that generic waiver, you would (probably) lose even the possibility of some portion of a future incentive. I am not a lawyer; you should definitely make sure this issue is reviewed by a legal advisor who is familiar with QDROs. BTW, your statement "...QDRO was replaced with a different benefit plan" is ambiguous. Company bankruptcy does not necessarily alter the Plan, so you should have clear documentation of what happened and how it affects you. In writing.

Earlier discussion. https://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?/topic/66992-looking-for-1099-r-software-recommendations/

Not trying to be snarky, but let's be clear who has the problem: the advisor who show up at the last minute. The recordkeeper / TPA should not accept fault.

Is this a governmental plan?

As stated above, this is my last entry for this data. If someone else is willing to add to the list each month, I'll be glad to help you get started.

Data as of December 31, 2020 (Thursday) Tenth month-end after beginning of Coved-19 pandemic/isolation Moody's Daily Long-term Corporate Bond Yield Averages Utilities Industrial CorporateAaa NA 2.23 2.23Aa 2.54 2.29 2.42A 2.74 2.60 2.67Baa 3.00 3.21 3.11Avg 2.76 2.58 2.67 Moody's Daily Treasury Yield AveragesShort-Term (3-5 yrs) 0.25Medium-Term (5-10 yrs) 0.58Long-Term (10+ yrs) 1.45 For those wondering about year-end volatility, I also looked at the same values for December 29 and December 30. The values differed by no more than 3-4 basis points.

The answer by JM is reasonable: the amount transferred should be adjusted for earnings. However, contributions are not earnings, so any contributions (EE or ER) made after the reference date (eg, date of separation) are usually excluded from this adjustment. Check carefully.

I think you have done something that is contrary to your separation agreement. That might not be bad, but you may wish to get feedback from your attorney. (BTW, if your attorney is not very familiar with QDROs, keep looking.) You may have given away more than you got, and your statement "...signed off his rights as beneficiary on my..." might be ambiguous. If your goal is to make sure someone else is your beneficiary, then (probably) the only way to accomplish that is by you completing a new beneficiary election.

It might be semantics to this ER, but only the PLAN can ask that an erroneous payment be returned, not the ER/plan sponsor.

Assuming you remain eligible for the ER contribution, it will be allocated to your account when deposited by the ER, whether or not you have previously withdrawn other amounts. BTW, be sure to read the "Special Tax Notice" before you take a distribution.

Not sure what "TSP" means. If it refers to a government-sponsored plan, note that QDRO specs apply only to the extent that the plan itself adopts such provisions, or recognizes the process (perhaps referring to a "court order" rather than "QDRO").

The existence (and acceptance) of a QDRO does not inherently preclude the ability of the participant to make some type of election. Refer to the terms of the QDRO itself.

IMHO, it's prudent to be prepared to include interest on any retroactive payment, but not necessarily required. Nor is it obvious what interest rate(s) to use. In a nutshell, to me this is a "facts and circumstances" analysis. An important condition in this decision might be whose "fault" leads to the retroactive nature of the payment. Also, the length of time might be relevant; interest for one month? For example, suppose Joe Employee comes into work and says, "I'm retiring tomorrow". Completion of necessary paperwork (including J&S) might be lengthy enough that Joe's first payment is one or two months after his expected retirement date. One could argue that the delay is not the fault of the employer, so that no interest is payable, but there might be other conditions to evaluate also. Likely, you can think of other examples that might be useful.

Who is authorized in the Plan and/or the Trust Agreement to make changes?

Perhaps search here? https://benefitslink.com/news/index.cgi, using search term: restatement