Ostanek v. Ostanek, Slip Opinion No. 2021-Ohio-2319 Issues with division of retirement accounts are seemingly springing up all over the place. At heart in most of these cases is a domestic relations order. Those are the orders of court that instruct an entity to, in short, divide the retirement funds.…
In Williams v. McDonald, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, reviewed Plaintiff’s appeal from the trial court’s order granting Defendant’s 12(b)(b) motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s complaint. Williams v. McDonald, COA20-10 (N.C. App 2020). Facts: Plaintiff and Defendant, after sixteen years of marriage, entered into a Separation Agreement…
Schorse v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo. 2018176, 2018 WL 5270556 (2018) (a) Facts: Husband was a computer programmer and wife was a physician. During the marriage, the wife earned 80% to 90% of the parties’ income. For tax years 2002, 2003, and 2004, the wife provided her tax information to the…
Does the entry of a court-ordered equitable distribution create an interest to a retirement asset? Do you even need to file a DRO or QDRO when an equitable distribution consent order is signed by a judge? See how the North Carolina Court of Appeals saves the award of the marital…
Hoak v. Plan Adm’r of Plans of NCR Corp., 389 F. Supp. 3d 1234 (N.D. Ga. 2019) (a) Facts: Two wives were divorced from their husbands. Both husbands were members of a senior executive retirement plan. The plan provided that survivor benefits would be paid to the “eligible spouse” of…
Culwick v. Wood, 384 F. Supp. 3d 328 (E.D.N.Y. 2019) (a) Facts: Husband and wife were divorced. Their divorce decree incorporated a separation agreement. The agreement provided: [T]he Husband shall otherwise retain all pensions and annuities acquired by him at any time, including during the term of the marriage. .…
Miletello v. RMR Mech., Inc., 921 F.3d 493 (5th Cir. 2019) (a) Facts: Husband and wife were engaged in divorce proceedings. A settlement agreement awarded to the wife $500,000 of the funds in the husband’s 401(k) plan. Before the husband complied with the order, he died. Two days later, the…
Christopoulos v. Trout, 343 F. Supp. 3d 812 (N.D. Ill. 2018) (a) Facts: Husband filed a divorce action against wife in Illinois. Immediately thereafter, he changed the beneficiary of his employer-provided group life insurance, naming a series of relatives in varying percentages. The wife immediately asked the divorce judge to…
Garcia Tatupu v. Bert Bell/Peter Rozelle NFL Player Ret. Plan, 296 F. Supp. 3d 407 (D. Mass. 2017), aff’d, 747 F. App’x 873 (1st Cir. 2019) (a) Facts: The husband, a former NFL football player, was divorced from his wife in Massachusetts in 1997. The decree incorporated a separation agreement,…
Sun Life Assur. Co. of Canada v. Jackson, 877 F.3d 698 (6th Cir. 2017), cert. denied, 138 S. Ct. 2624 (2018) (a) Facts: The parties were divorced in 2006. The divorce decree, which incorporated a separation agreement, ordered the husband to maintain any employer-provided life insurance policies for the…