Info needed

[Guest desertbird3@yahoo.com]

Need info on "fees" charged for selecting the post retirement surviving spouse benefit in a QDRO. My Ex's attorney states that by making this selection, a fee / charge will be deducted from his clinets monthly income. Does anyone have any ideas?

Fidelity says there is a fee but will not specify an amount until the QDRO has been court certified.

Judge is giving us a month to find out the amount & come to an agreement or otherwise it will have to go to trial which neither party wants.

HOPE Someone can HELP!!!!!

[Mike Preston]

I guess there are two ways to look at this. 1) You should be entitled to get information from the plan sponsor so that you can make informed decisions. Not from Fidelity (unless your ex works for Fidelity), but from the plan itself. 2) I think it is possible that the person you were speaking with at Fidelity is confused about the nature of the benefit. It sounds like they might be confusing the word "fee" for "benefit". That is, if your benefit is $200/month, they might think that it is a reduction to your ex's benefit of $200/month and, to them, that is a "charge." Of course, the amount of that "charge" can't be known until the QDRO is presented to them.

In general, it is not normal practice to have your ex's benefit reduced by both your benefit and a separate "fee" or "charge", although I guess it is possible.

[masteff]

Just an FYI, not contradicting Mike at all, but Fidelity does offer a QDRO service to clients who choose to pay for it, so it's possible that's why they're talking to Fidelity and not to the plan sponsor (it might have been outsourced). Even so, someone at the company should be able to help you understand what's being said.

Have you done a draft QDRO? Normally a draft would be submitted to the plan first to save having to go to the judge twice for corrections. The plan (Fidelity or the sponsor) should be able to provide some numbers from the draft.

And I really agree w/ Mike that the word "fee" doesn't make sense. Were they possibly talking about reduction in benefit for early commencement? Or possibly talking about reduction in benefit for chosing an alternate form of benefit? Probably need to talk to Fidelity and ask what they mean by "fee", make sure that's the right word, and what's it for and who is charging it.

[Guest desertbird3@yahoo.com]

Thank you for the information. I have been dealing with Fidility, which is the plan admin, since Jan 07 on this. A draft QDRO was executed from their online site & entered before the judge because the ex's attorney has failed to file a QDRO that qualifies under the guidlines.

The Ex retired March 06 at age 50. Without the Post Retirement Surviving Spouse Benefit all benefits will end when the Participant dies so this is the questionable issue. And some type of fee is charged for this.

Fidelity will not give me any finicial info. I have No idea of how much the ex's retirement is & the benefits are payable from the time of marriage to time of divorce, which was 1991. Is there a way to find out this info??

Your time and information is greatly appreciated!

[masteff]

Without the Post Retirement Surviving Spouse Benefit all benefits will end when the Participant dies so this is the questionable issue. And some type of fee is charged for this.

Fidelity will not give me any finicial info. Is there a way to find out this info??

Is it possible that the term they are using is "actuarial adjustment"? We'd really need to know the exact phrase Fidelity is using to be able to help you understand that piece of the situation.

Fidelity has the information and they appear to be doing the QDRO processing, so the information needs to come from them. But they probably need the information request in the proper legal format. They can't just disclose that information. Either you lawyer needs to submit the proper form of information request (I'm not a lawyer so I don't know the proper term to give you) or your ex needs to sign an information release (or both). If you've been doing the legwork to help reduce your legal fees, this is the point where you need your lawyer to be involved in dealing w/ Fidelity; he/she should be able to request the information.

[Guest mjb]

Isn't the fee the actuarial reduction in the amount of the participant's benefit that results from paying retirrement benefits over two lives where the employer does not subsidize the J & S annuity? The reduction should be in the SPD. Plan administrator may not wish to provde information to non participant so spouse would have to ask employee to get it.