Retirement and Divorce: Additional Resources
We hope you’ve found our series of blog entries on divorce and retirement assets to be informative. In today’s final blog entry we have listed several additional resources that provide additional information on divorce and retirement assets. ▪ The U.S. Department of Labor has published a helpful booklet about Qualified Domestic Relations Orders called The Division of Retirement […]
Don’t take a pension for granted
Often divorcing couples will opt to divide their marital property by giving one spouse the home and the other spouse the pension. This easy way of dividing marital property may leave one spouse at a disadvantage that isn’t recognized until retirement. While a house may have emotional value, it may not have the same monetary […]
Don’t delay: Submit court orders to the plan right away!
In order to receive retirement benefits that have been awarded in a divorce, it is important to obtain a court order, which tells retirement plans how to divide and pay benefits to the divorced couple. For private retirement plans, these court orders are called Qualified Domestic Relations Orders or QDROs. Other retirement systems call them Domestic Relations Orders or […]
A pension earned during a marriage is usually the property of both spouses
Did you know that, in general, retirement assets earned during a marriage are marital property in the same way that a house and a savings account are? This applies to: ▪ pension benefits earned during a marriage; ▪ retirement savings accounts that were funded during a marriage; and ▪ the earnings on these accounts that accumulated during the marriage. Please […]
Getting divorced? Don’t forget the pension!
What better time than the week after Valentine’s Day to devote a week’s worth of blog entries to divorce? This is the first in a series of blog entries focusing on issues involving divorce and retirement. Enjoy! Did you know that, aside from real estate, retirement plans are usually the largest asset in a marriage? Yet, […]
Workers and Retirees Lose Pensions – and Take Action!
On New Year’s Eve, current and retired employees of Augsburg Fortress, the publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, learned that their traditional defined benefit pension plan would be terminated and that they could lose a substantial portion of their benefits as a result of the termination. These days, news of an employer […]
When is a participant not a participant?
As I was reading the most recent edition of the Private Pension Plan Bulletin Abstract of 2007 Form 5500 Annual Reports [PDF], published by the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, I noticed something rather odd in one of the footnotes. In its definition of “participant,” the Bulletin includes “individuals who are merely eligible to elect […]
Military retirement for the 21st century
A few months ago we posted a blog entry about a letter [PDF] we wrote opposing a bill in the Oklahoma state legislature that would limit the ability of former spouses to receive an award of military retirement pay in a divorce settlement. The blog entry received a number of comments – several disagreeing with our […]
Speech given by Karen Ferguson on the future of defined benefit pension plans
December 7, 2009: PRC Director Karen Ferguson spoke at a policy forum on the future of defined benefit pension plans. The forum was sponsored by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in celebration of the 35th anniversary of ERISA and the establishment of the PBGC.
PRC letter in support of the Retirement Fairness Act of 2009
November 18, 2009: PRC Director Karen Ferguson and Executive Vice President and Policy Director Karen Friedman wrote a letter in support of the Retirement Fairness Act of 2009 (H.R. 4126) introduced by Representative Lloyd Doggett.
Senators…Keep your hands off Social Security
Senators Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg, the leaders of the Senate Budget Committee, are proposing to set up a commission that they argue is necessary to address tough budgetary issues. In reality though, the proposed commission is likely to force Congress to make destructive cuts in Social Security. Their plan is to establish a commission with equal representation of […]
On this day…
On this day in 1981, the final regulations for 401(k) plans were issued. What better day than today to look back at what we’ve written on 401(k) plans? Here’s our top 10 list: ▪ TIME Magazine says, “Time to Retire the 401(k)” ▪ A retirement reality check ▪ Mother Jones for Mother’s Day ▪ The Office gets a 401(k) […]
