Courts address the interrelationship of divorce and post-divorce decrees and retirement plan provisions
Article Abstract:
Two federal courts have recently considered the effect of nonqualified post-divorce domestic relations orders on retirement plan distributions. In Hopkins v. AT & T Global Information Solutions Co., the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia found that a family court could not order benefits to be transferred to the ex-wife because the rights of the current wife had already vested. In Altobelli v. IBM Corp., the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that a nonparticipant beneficiary could waive benefits in a nonqualifying domestic relations order.
Publication Name: Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0747-8607
Year: 1996
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ERISA's anti-alienation rule does not prohibit the IRS from garnishing taxpayer's interest in ERISA plan
Article Abstract:
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in United States v. Sawaf that garnishment of taxpayers interest in a qualified benefit plan by the IRS for an unpaid tax liability was not barred by section 206(d) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The taxpayers argued that such attachment would violate anti-alienation provisions that rendered qualified plan interests exempt. The court distinguished the present case from other cases that had protected the pensions based on the fact that private creditors were involved in the other cases.
Publication Name: Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0747-8607
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
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- Abstracts: IRS approves changes in asset valuation method and software for defined benefit plans. PBGC proposes changes in plan benefit valuation rules for single-employer and multiemployer plans after mass withdrawal
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