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- Title
FOCUS ON PLAN ADMINISTRATION.
- Authors
Hesse, Katherine A.; Ehrens, Doris R. MacKenzie
- Abstract
The article presents several court cases on health plan benefits in the United States. Some of the cases which are discussed: Stewart v. Thorpe Holding Co.; Rivers v. Central and South West Corp.; Robichaud Samaroo v. Samaroo and AT&T Management Pension Plan; Trujillo v. Cyprus Amax Minerals Co. Retirement Plan Committee; Harris v. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc.; and others. In Stewart v. Thorpe Holding Co. case, it is ascertained that the criteria by which a domestic relations order is to be judged to determine whether it is a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) should be liberally applied to effectuate their purpose. The information provided in the order must be considered in context and, as long as the decree does non lack essential information and the necessary information in the order and is available to plan fiduciaries, the order should constitute a valid QDRO. The plan's administrators cannot deny a prospective alternate payee the right to qualify a domestic relations order by breaching their fiduciary duties. The Rivers v. Central and South West Corp. ascertained that in order to be entitled to spousal benefits from a participant's pension plan, a former spouse must obtain a QDRO recognizing her as an alternate payee before the participant retires.
- Subjects
UNITED States; ACTIONS &; defenses (Law); EMPLOYER-sponsored health insurance; DOMESTIC relations; QUALIFIED domestic relations orders; LUMP sum distributions (Pensions)
- Publication
Benefits Quarterly, 2001, Vol 17, Issue 4, p87
- ISSN
8756-1263
- Publication type
Article