Читать книгу Rightfully Yours - Gary A. Shulman - Страница 16

Take the case of Evelyn Schmidt. She had never heard of a QDRO either. In 2001, at the age of 62, she divorced David after a 30-year marriage. At that time, David worked for a large Fortune 500 company. He had been employed there for more than 25 years. Her divorce decree granted her 50 percent of David’s pension and 401(k) benefits through his employer. That’s right: the company has two retirement plans for David, not just one. One of them is a defined benefit pension plan that will pay him more than $3,000 per month for life when he retires, and the other is a 401(k) defined contribution plan. The pension plan is valued at $240,000. The total account balance in the 401(k) is $380,000.

According to the divorce decree that was entered by the court and signed by the judge, Evelyn was to receive half of David’s future pension annuity that was attributable to the years of the marriage. This alone would have provided her with more than $1,400 per month from the pension plan for her entire lifetime. She was also awarded half of his 401(k) plan in the amount of $190,000, plus investment gains or losses until the date of actual distribution.

As it turned out, Evelyn’s attorney never prepared a QDRO, even though her divorce decree granted her a share of the pension and 401(k) plan. In February 2002, David Schmidt died. The result? Evelyn will never see a penny from David’s retirement plans. Why? One simple, but catastrophic answer. A QDRO was never prepared by her attorney and submitted to David’s company for review and approval. After David’s death, Evelyn quickly took a copy of her divorce decree to the plan administrator. She showed them the applicable section of her divorce decree, which clearly indicated that she was awarded half of her ex-husband’s pension and 401(K) benefits. She even showed them the judge’s signature on the decree. The plan administrator’s response? “Sorry, but because we never received and approved a QDRO before your ex-husband’s death, you are not entitled to any benefits from the pension or 401(k) plan.” Does Evelyn have any recourse against her ex’s company? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Her only recourse may be a malpractice suit against her attorney for failing to draft a proper QDRO in her case.