QDRO Amended After Participant Death not Valid

January 5, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The US District Court for the District of New Jersey has determined that an amended qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) naming a participant's ex-wife as alternate payee of his monthly pension is not valid.

The court said the document could not give the ex-wife a right to survivor benefits that did not exist at the time of the participant’s death, and therefore was not a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

According to the opinion, the couple’s divorce agreement (which met the requirements of a QDRO) provided for the wife to receive $232.56 per month once the husband began receiving his monthly pension benefits.   Since he died before he began receiving his monthly benefits, the wife’s right to the benefits never existed.  

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The pension fund administrators denied the wife’s claim for benefits on this basis.   After being denied, the wife obtained the amended QDRO from a New Jersey state court.   The amended QDRO stated that the ex-wife was to be deemed the “alternate payee” of husband’s benefits and was to be treated as his surviving spouse.   After still being denied benefits, the ex-wife sued.

The court granted summary judgment in favor of the pension fund.

The case is Sanzo v. NYSA-ILA Pension Trust Fund, D.N.J., No. 04-300 (WGB), unpublished 12/29/05.

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