Beneficiary designation of unmarried participant who later marries

[Guest StephenJ7976]

If an unmarried participant in a qualified profit sharing plan designated a non-spouse individual as his beneficiary, does his later marriage nullify the then-existing designation? More specifically, is the original designation of the non-spouse individual as beneficiary valid even though the participant later married and did not obtain his spouse's consent to waive her survivor benefits?

Please let me know if you have any inisight or experience with respect to this issue. Thanks.

[QDROphile]

Marriage trumps. On the other side, the plan document should take control of what happens if the participant was married (without naming another beneficiarry with spouse consent) , but is umarried at death.

[david rigby]

See IRS Reg. 1.401(a)-20, Q&A-25

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-....26&idno=26

[Guest StephenJ7976]

No, participant was still married at time of death. Same result?

[Guest StephenJ7976]

Also, I did fine one case on point where a NY court concluded that a beneficiary designated by an unmarried participant (who later married) was entitled to the death benefit under the plan. The court reasoned that the spousal consent requirement was inapplicable to an unmarried participant and the marriage did not nullify the ealier designation. See Matter of Estate of Bloom-Kartiganer, 194 A.D.2d 959 (1993).

Thoughts on this?

[Guest mjb]

I would not rely on the the Bloom-Kartinager case because the US Supreme Court subsequently ruled in Boggs v.Boggs, 520 US 833 (1997) that spousal rights trump all other rights and cannot be subject to claims by non spouse beneficaries because the statutory scheme of ERISA as amended by the Retirement Equity Act is to ensure that the stream of income is be paid to the spouse unless the spouse waives the right to receive the benefits.