kazoni

My research agrees with you. I have a meeting with the executor's attorneys in 45 minutes who argue otherwise - even after I showed them in the regulations why they can't. I'm not looking forward to it. That's why I was hoping to find a way to call the spouses bene form valid and just process it that way. C'est la vie.

I wouldn't think the source of the assets would make a difference since his beneficiary designation is for the plan. I've never seen where a participant designates person A as bene for their own contributions and person B as bene for funds they received as bene. Although, I haven't seen anything that says they couldn't if they really wanted to. I think that's the crux of this part of my issue. When are beneficiary designations considered 'completed'? To change the situation a little bit, what is your opinion on if say a participant cashes out, then gets a QNEC years later for some reason. Would their original bene designation still be considered effective as it was the last designation made or would you call the old one void and make them redesignate? I did kick this back to the Sponsor/TPA since it's ultimately their interpretation that matters. If the old designation held, it'd make less work on my end of things. Either way, it's mostly CYA for us.

Correct. She died, so funds go to him per her beneficiary designation. He died 2 days after she did so I believe his designation should take effect at that point.

Hello all, I have an interesting problem that doesn't seem to quite fit into some others that I've found here while searching. Here's the situation: We are a RK vendor for part of a non-ERISA 403(b). A participant died naming her spouse as her primary 100% beneficiary and her parents as 50/50 contingent beneficiaries. Her spouse died 2 days later. Initially, we believed that he passed without having made a designation himself. Per the plan document, the default is spouse, then estate. This would mean his assets now belong to his estate, who wants us to roll it over into an IRA the estate seems to have setup (I know this isn't correct, but it's a topic for another post). It has since been discovered that the spouse was a former participant of the plan on his own and he did have a beneficiary designation dated in 2009. His form named his spouse as 100% primary and his brother as 100% contingent. He took a full distribution of his account in 2016. The TPA firm, and to an extent the client, is trying to say since he took a full distribution years ago, his beneficiary form is basically null and void as the account was 'closed'. The beneficiary form doesn't have any language that would nullify it except upon receipt of a new beneficiary form. My opinion is that his beneficiary form is still valid and in force regardless if he cashed out previously or not. It'd be no different than if someone left service, took a full distribution, and then ended up with a non-elective contribution 8 months later but died in the interim. I've tried digging through IRC and even the EOB trying to find any guidance and have not come up with anything concrete enough to prove my point. Has anyone seen anything like this or have any other places to try looking?