Waiver of Annuity Required?

[RPP2001]

FACTS:

Plan offers J&S.

A beneficiary form is on file for X Participant and the beneficiary is a non-spouse beneficiary. Spouse consents to the non-spouse beneficiary.

If X Participant's vested balance exceeds $5,000 and X Participant requests an age 59 1/2 in-service withdrawal, must a waiver of annuity form be signed by the spouse considering the facts above? In other words, since the spouse already consented to X Participant's death benefit being paid to a non-spouse beneficiary, is a waiver of annuity form needed for a distribution taken by X participant while living?

Thank you.

[My 2 cents]

It depends on what the waiver covers. There are waivers of QPSAs (qualified pre-retirement annuities) and there are waivers of QJSAs (qualified joint and survivor annuities). Each must provide their own explanation of what is being given up. It is possible (but certainly not automatic) that waiving a QPSA could also entail waiving a QJSA, if the information provided covered the consequences of both and the waiver explicitly made it clear the spouse was giving up his/her rights to both pre-retirement coverage and post-retirement death benefits. Otherwise, a QPSA waiver would not also cover the spouse's waiving QJSA rights.