Life in Prison

[Guest The Pension Kid]

I have a rather large client who now wants to start paying out a bunch of his previous terminees. There is a guy who terminated in 1997, but is now in prison for life. What do I do now? I can't necessarily send him his distribution paperwork. Has anyone run across this before? No one here seems to have.

Any and all assistance you are able to give me is much appreciated.

[Lori Friedman]

In prison for LIFE?!?!? That must be quite a story.

[Guest DBtech]

I don't understand why a prisoner can't make an election under a pension plan while he's incarcerated? But if you can't get forms to him, you can fall back on this provision present in most benefit plans:

If any person to whom a retirement benefit is payable is unable to care for his affairs because of illness or accident, any payment due (unless prior claim therefore shall have been made by a duly qualified guardian or other legal representative) may be paid to the Spouse, parent, brother or sister, or any other individual deemed by the Administrator to be maintaining or responsible for the maintenance of such person. The monthly payment of a retirement benefit to a person for the month in which he dies shall, if not paid to such person prior to his death, be paid to his Spouse, parent, brother, sister, or estate as the Administrator shall determine. Any payment made in accordance with the provisions of this Section shall be a complete discharge of any liability of the Plan with respect to the benefit so paid.

[Belgarath]

Lori - I believe he wore a Yankees jersey in Fenway.

DB - just out of curiosity - I've never happened to see that language. Although I also admit I might not have noticed if I wasn't looking for it. Is this present in Corbel, Datair, etc. - some of the big providers?

[mbozek]

Prisoners are not incapacated persons who cannot handle their own affairs and there are several cases where pension benfefits paid to prisoners have been seized to pay fines or taxes imposed under federal law. The pension plan forms can be sent to the participant at his prison address.

[Guest The Pension Kid]

In prison for LIFE?!?!? That must be quite a story.

Tell me about it. The plan trustee called me and gave me the info on looking him up on-line. He's in for "Homicide - Felony Murder". creepy.

[Guest The Pension Kid]

Prisoners are not incapacated persons who cannot handle their own affairs and there are several cases where pension benfefits paid to prisoners have been seized to pay fines or taxes imposed under federal law. The pension plan forms can be sent to the participant at his prison address.

So, do you mean send them to the prison, care of the prisoner?

[chris]

Sometimes prisoners have a power of attorney in place naming someone "on the outside" who can handle their affairs. You may correspond with him initially and see if that is the case or you could just send all the forms to him and ask him to notify you if he has an attorney in fact you should be dealing with instead.