QDRO Amendment

Hello, in 1994 my ex husband agreed to a QDRO (Total number of months during marriage which participant participated in (*** retirement account) to wit: 123 months / over/ Total number of months of participants active participation in (***) as of the date of retirement or termination from service X.50 X Gross amount of monthly income

Recently his attorney sent me a modification to sign.  The company filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and the QDRO was replaced with a different benefit plan.  The new amendment states "shall not apply to any special termination program benefits which the participant is or may become eligible to receive under *** Appendix S"

Should I be entitled to those benefits as well? My attorney is not replying and I need to decide how to proceed = any help advice is appreciated.

IMHO, no you should not agree to that condition.  Why? because it might only be theoretical (nothing wrong with that), or it might mean there is a future possibility of a "retirement incentive" to him, a portion of which might apply to you.  Since such incentives can take many forms, it's likely impossible to know today whether it really applies to your portion of the benefit later.  By signing that generic waiver, you would (probably) lose even the possibility of some portion of a future incentive.  I am not a lawyer; you should definitely make sure this issue is reviewed by a legal advisor who is familiar with QDROs.

BTW, your statement "...QDRO was replaced with a different benefit plan" is ambiguous.  Company bankruptcy does not necessarily alter the Plan, so you should have clear documentation of what happened and how it affects you.  In writing.

David is correct and you should talk to a QDRO attorney to be sure, but company bankruptcy is a completely different issue than retirement plan termination.  Assuming this is a qualified plan then there would be a pension trust not subject to company creditors and therefore the plan may still be in existence. In CA there is case law regarding pension enhancements such as a plan incentive to retire early (something not written into the plan document) or a plan early retirement subsidy which is written in the plan document.    Just a thought and recommend you seek out a QDRO attorney for assistance.

I agree with both prior comments  - "special termination program benefits" can be significant, or as David said - they might be nothing, but you should not simply give them away without knowing more.