Pension Dork

Make sure the lawyer you pick is good with math, because we're going to want to reduce the amount of her 25% of your benefit by the present value of that $12,000 from 2009. Good luck!

Who submitted the death certificate? Assuming it was the son, did he have to complete a form to request for the benefits? Did the form ask for the deceased's marital status? Did the son answer truthfully? Someone at the company should have reviewed the form and the death cert. If they had, they would have requested the spousal waiver and, since there wasn't one, stopped the payment process at that time. If that didn't happen and the documents were sent to Fidelity, then someone THERE should have caught it. IMO, Fidelity needs to pay the widow right away and recoup the money as best they can. Review the Plan Document as well as the Service Contract to determine who is ultimately responsible for "approving" the payment transaction.

Regarding the old paperwork she signed prior to 2011, it's possible that you are referring to a QPSA - an election form that your mom would have completed while she was still working and still married. It used to be common for pension plans to require married participants to complete these regularly. It's also doubtful that the plan would have allowed her to choose a 100% Joint and Survivor option with you as the beneficiary because of your age difference - although it is technically possible, I guess.

I have never heard of a "divorce erases the ex off the beneficiary form" clause. I've heard of language that confirms that only legal spouses qualify for QJSA, QPSA treatment, but never one that wouldn't pay the ex as the named Primary Beneficiary like anyone else. Been in the biz for 40+ years, more on the DB side than DC, but still.......

We would normally send it to the family member who notified us of the participant's death, or would have asked him or her where it should be sent.

Sorry but the plan should NOT include any service while the person was an employee of the temp. agency. If the person received his/her paychecks and W-2s from the temp agency, then he/she was an employee of the agency, not the place where he/she worked. Absolutely no debate about that. Service should only count once he/she became an employee of the company. It gets murkier if the person is paid as a temp/consultant/contractor by the actual employer but this one is very straightforward.

If my plan sent me this notice, I'd contact them independently to find out if it's a phishing scam. It's written like the English translation of IKEA assembly directions!

Well, try not to drift near the outer side of Cape Cod if you're on that inner tube! Unless you have a big can of Shark-B-Gone!

If it was an employee making this request, you'd send her a retirement election package. Depending on the QDRO's provisions, you might need to edit an election form and send with DD, tax forms, etc. You wouldn't charge an employee/former employee for this -- why would you charge an AP?

Is the client requiring the participant to complete this program before they will consider an H.D. or does the person just have to enroll? What happens if they enroll but don't complete the program? What if they complete the program but don't follow any of the recommendations? What if the participant is the client's CFO? See where this is going? I would advise the client that they may think it's a good idea, but it will cause administrative difficulty, be hard to set-up and to enforce, and be considered insulting by many employees.

Great letter.....lots of drama and gossip along with pension terminology! If there was a legitimate, court-signed, plan-approved, "qualified" QDRO that specified that the Alternate Payee's payments would end at the time of a life event, and the AP did not notify the plan, then the Plan should pursue the AP to have the overpayments refunded to the Plan. Generally, if the payments were to end at a specific date, it would have been the responsibility of the Plan Sponsor and/or the administrator to do so. (I can't imagine why a Plan would qualify a DRO with one of these life-event specifications, as they would not realistically be able to monitor it. But as we know, there are many poor QDROs out there..) Would be helpful to know who "you" are in relation to this dilemma.

I might be making a wild assumption...(!)...but it's possible that the distribution package the former employee received was confusing, contained many forms, and the process by which a rollover would be made was not spelled out clearly. The result was that the participant was confused and/or misinformed or both. I'm sure the former employee is thinking about the earnings that she didn't receive as the check was floating around for three or four weeks, and I don't blame her for being annoyed. Very inefficient process. I have worked on the employer side as well as for many of the big DB shops, and I've never heard of a rollover check being mailed back to employee's former company. Why would they do that? (If the employer needs to verify that each distribution check is correct, they need to find another administrator!!!) The employer needs to take another look at the distribution package and make sure that the rollover process is clearly spelled out. (For example, the form shouldn't ask for the rollover account address if it's not being mailed there by the old plan.) Bottom line - in my opinion, they need to acknowledge the confusion and misinformation that occurred and apologize for it. That's normally all a call like this requires.... (...but I wouldn't be shocked if she'd be looking for some adjustment for her loss, either.) P.S. I'd make sure it's a member of the employer's benefits team calling her back, not a customer service center rep. Just my two cents.

I think your first step should be contacting your old divorce lawyer and get a copy of all the latest DRO/QDRO s/he has on file along with any correspondence from the Plan. You need to get a clear handle on the true status of this matter. You need to do this immediately, since without a Qualified DRO, there's nothing in place that establishes you as an Alternate Payee or gives you any rights to any of the Plan benefits. Your ex could conceivably swoop in and take every penny from the Plan, leaving you with nothing. Personally, I would find another attorney who is well educated in QDROs to handle this for you quickly. By the way, the former Plan Administrator was probably treating your/your ex's account as having a QDRO in process, but if it was never finalized, then the new Plan Administrator is not recognizing it. Completely normal in their worlds. Good luck to you!

(Long-time listener, first-time caller....) We don't have the plan document, the final QDRO, or the age when the ex started his benefits. Many DB QDROs I've worked with do not require the Alternate Payee to commence payment at the same time as the employee. For example, you may not be required to commence your payments until his Normal Retirement Date, so if he took early retirement at age 62, it doesn't affect you. It's wrong to assume you will be eligible for payments based on when he started his. When the QDRO was finalized, the Plan would have calculated his benefit at Normal Retirement Date and then applied the specifics in your QDRO to calculate your piece of that benefit. Just wanted you to be prepared in the event of this possibility. Good luck to you.