CORRECTION: |
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| January 28, 2009 |
The headline we wrote for the first article in today's newsletter, about the Supreme Court's opinion in Kennedy v. DuPont Savings and Investment Plan, was incorrect.
The correct headline is:
[Official Guidance]
Text of U.S. Supreme Court Decision Affirming Payment of Death Benefit from Pension Plan to Surviving Ex-Spouse Designated as Beneficiary, Despite Terms of Later Divorce Decree (PDF)
22 pages. Excerpt (from the opinion's syllabus): 'Under the terms of the plan, if there is no surviving spouse or designated beneficiary at the time of death, distribution is made as directed by the estate's executor or administrator. Upon their marriage, William designated Liv Kennedy his SIP beneficiary and named no contingent beneficiary. Their subsequent divorce decree divested Liv of her interest in the SIP benefits, but William did not execute a document removing Liv as the SIP beneficiary. On William's death, petitioner Kari Kennedy, his daughter and the executrix of his Estate, asked for the SIP funds to be distributed to the Estate, but the plan administrator relied on William's designation form and paid them to Liv." (U.S. Supreme Court via American Benefits Council)
In the opinion the Supreme Court upheld the pension plan's payment of a death benefit to the person designated by the participant as his beneficiary.
For purposes of ERISA, it was irrelevant that the participant and beneficiary later divorced and that the divorce decree by its terms waived the beneficiary's right to payments from any pension plan.
We thank the American Benefits Council for publishing the text of the opinion online, to which you were linked; the mistaken headline was written by BenefitsLink and is entirely our fault.
We apologize for the error!
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