"The Court drew a distinction between entitlement claims, which it said are subject to ERISA's anti-alienation provision, and contested claims, which it said fall outside the realm of the anti-alienation provision. The Court defined a pension entitlement as a claim 'for vested benefits to which a plaintiff is entitled under the terms of the pension plan itself;' whereas a contested claim is 'a claim for additional benefits to which [a plaintiff] is not entitled under the terms of the Plan itself.'" [Hakim v. Accenture United States Pension Plan, Case No. 11-3438, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 10475 (7th Cir. May 23, 2013)]  MORE >>