7th Circuit’s Recent Ruling in ERISA Change-of-Beneficiary Dispute Offers Key Takeaways for Employers and Retirement Plan Fiduciaries

Love may fade, but beneficiary designations do not. That was the hard lesson learned in a legal dispute between a man’s estate and his ex-spouse over his retirement plan proceeds – ultimately, a federal appeals court in Chicago refused to honor a man’s attempt to remove his ex-wife as beneficiary of his retirement account and ruled that the ex was entitled to receive the entirety of the account. The decision, which was based on a legal test courts have long recognized in ERISA cases, produced a... By: Fisher Phillips