Читать книгу Rightfully Yours - Gary A. Shulman - Страница 46

Too many pension plan administrators view the nonparticipant spouse as an individual appropriating something that was earned through someone else’s efforts. The economic partnership aspects of a marriage — the fact that a pension is deferred wages earned through the efforts of both parties and the contributions of the nonemployee to the overall marital estate — can be obscured by the misguided loyalty of plan administrators toward their employees. Many plan administrators do not realize that the nonparticipant spouse is actually considered a co-owner of the pension by domestic relations courts throughout the country. However, as unresponsive as some plan administrators are toward attorneys, they may be even less responsive to a former spouse trying to obtain information directly.

These attitudes may change once the QDRO is approved, because the nonparticipant spouse should be considered by the plan administrator to have the same status as a plan beneficiary and to be entitled to all of the required notices and other information sent to plan participants. Also, an alternate payee should then be permitted to receive information from the plan regarding the amount of the assigned benefits and how much the alternate payee would receive, depending on various potential commencement dates.