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Pension Plan Benefits or Rights

Quick Facts

Public plans and private plans are determined the same way.

Pension plan benefits and pension plan rights refer to a benefit or right to which a spouse is entitled from a public pension or private pension plan accrued to the end of the month during which marital assets are valued. The benefits and rights are determined by the relevant laws or the terms of provisions governing the plan as stated in the plan documents.

The division of pension plan benefits or rights in the form of future pension plan payments:

is payable only to the extent of the amount of the pension plan benefit payable under the terms of the plan;
is not payable for a period that exceeds the time that pension plan benefits are payable to the pension plan benefit recipient;
is not payable in a lump sum amount from defined benefit pension plan assets attributable in any fashion to a spouse with the status of an active member, deferred retiree, or benefit recipient of a pension plan;
if the former spouse to whom the payments are to be made dies prior to the end of the specified payment period with the right to any remaining payments accruing to an estate or to more than one survivor, is payable only to a trustee on behalf of the estate or the group of survivors for subsequent apportionment by the trustee; and
in the case of defined benefit public pension plan benefits or rights, may not commence until the public plan member submits a valid application for a public pension plan benefit and the benefit becomes payable.

Certain individual retirement account plans may provide in plan documents, if published and made generally available, for alternative marital property division or distribution of individual retirement account plan assets. If an alternative division or distribution procedure is provided, it applies in place of standard statutory language.