PremierSource

PremierSource president Teah Corley was interviewed for an Oklahoman feature about how the recent Kennedy v. Dupont ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling could impact plan sponsors and administrators.

"This ruling has been well-received by plan sponsors and administrators," Corley told The Oklahoman. "The court’s decision favors putting the burden on the participant to ensure that they provide appropriate documentation to the plan sponsor or administrator — and supports plan sponsors and administrators in recognizing that they can only act on the documentation they have been provided."

Corley said that the ruling reaffirms that plans sponsors and administrators can rely solely upon the plan documents and related forms to determine who's eligible to receive retirement plan distribution rather than having to look to outside documents for guidance.

"In this case, the ex-spouse agreed to waive her rights to her ex-husband’s benefits, but a qualified domestic order (QDRO) was never completed or submitted and the beneficiary documentation was never updated to remove the ex-wife as beneficiary," Corley told The Oklahoman. "The plan sponsor had no choice but to issue the distribution to the ex-wife as the named beneficiary on file. Any other decision would have put a significant burden on plan sponsors and administrators."

Corley also said that the ruling's impact could extend beyond pension benefits.

"The same methodology could apply to individuals who establish trust documents and then forget to change the ownership of assets to fund their trusts or update trust beneficiary documentation," she said. "This ruling should serve to increase awareness and could ultimately serve as a precedent to trustees, financial institutions and administrators in many of these additional areas."

You can read the entire article here.