The Striking Down of DOMA: A call to update your participants’ beneficiary forms

Unless you have been living in a cave for the past week, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.

DOMA restricted recognition and benefits for same sex marriages, which the definition of marriage having been a state matter.

For those in the retirement plan industry, the issues are significant because spouses are entitled to benefits and option that non-spouses are entitled to. Regardless of your view on the matter, the significance of DOMA being struck down is that same sex spouses will be due the benefits and rights that other spouses have enjoyed for years.

While defined benefit plans offer that joint and survivor annuity option, the most significant change is spousal consent, where spouses must consent for the plan participant to designate anyone other than the spouse as a beneficiary. This is significant because that means that the beneficiary forms for participants who have same sex marriages are completely out of date.

While I will not bore you with the many changes that the striking down of DOMA will have on retirement plans before any guidance by the Internal Revenue Service, I will suggest that this is a great time to review the beneficiary forms of all participants, whether they have same sex marriages or not. There are too many headaches that plan sponsors and their plan providers have when it comes to paying beneficiaries after the death of a participant.

Consider asking your plan participants to review their forms and make any corrections (especially with new marriages and those who have same sex spouses) so that the form is up to date. Every Spring, they talk about Spring cleaning. Let this striking down of DOMA also be a Spring cleaning of out of date beneficiary forms.

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