Empower 457 Plan

Do you need Spousal Consent to withdraw from an Empower 457 Plan Account

Your description suggests the plan might be intended as one Internal Revenue Code of 1986 § 457(b) describes as an eligible deferred compensation plan, and within those might be a plan established and maintained by a State or local government employer.

If the plan is such a governmental plan, ERISA § 205 (29 U.S.C. § 1055) does not govern the plan.

If the plan is such a governmental § 457(b) plan, a spouse’s-consent provision of the kind ERISA § 205 commands for a retirement plan governed by that section is not a condition for Federal income tax treatment as an eligible deferred compensation plan.

Whether a particular governmental § 457(b) plan requires a spouse’s consent turns on State law and the particular plan’s provisions.

That Empower’s form to claim a distribution includes an element for a spouse’s consent does not by itself mean that the particular plan requires a spouse’s consent.

The circumstances you’ve described suggest the spouse needs his or her lawyer’s full advice and, likely, prompt action.

This is not advice to anyone.