We would love to hear from you. Click on the ‘Contact Us’ link to the right and choose your favorite way to reach-out!

wscdsdc

media/speaking contact

Jamie Johnson

business contact

Victoria Peterson

Contact Us

855.ask.wink

Close [x]
pattern

Industry News

Categories

  • Industry Articles (21,155)
  • Industry Conferences (2)
  • Industry Job Openings (35)
  • Moore on the Market (414)
  • Negative Media (144)
  • Positive Media (73)
  • Sheryl's Articles (800)
  • Wink's Articles (353)
  • Wink's Inside Story (274)
  • Wink's Press Releases (123)
  • Blog Archives

  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • May 2008
  • February 2008
  • August 2006
  • Same-Sex Marriage Complicating Retirement

    July 9, 2013 by Cyril Tuohy

    Corporate benefits managers and their advisors who thought they deserved a break this July 4 before ramping up for health care reform under the Affordable Care Act got no such respite, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court and its decision to strike down a key section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

    The high court’s recent decision simplifies the handling of retirement benefits for same-sex spouses in 12 states and the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriage is legal, but complicates matters in the 37 other states that don’t recognize same-sex marriages, according to legal experts.

    Before the ruling, for the purposes of allocating retirement benefits, employers had to draw a distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex marriages in states that approved same-sex marriages, according to experts.

    But now, a new wrinkle has emerged and employers have to wonder whether they have to distinguish between couples married in a state that approves same-sex marriage, but living in a state that does not, Valerie Grace, a partner in the Washington Resource Group of health and benefits consultant Mercer, said.

    “The thorniest issue is where couples are married now,” Grace said in an interview with InsuranceNewsNet. “Do plans look to where the marriage license was issued, or where people actually reside?”

    In U.S. vs. Windsor, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of DOMA, which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriage.

    The decision means that same-sex couples recognized as legally wed under state law must now be treated as spouses under Internal Revenue Service rules and the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

    Come August, same-sex marriages will be legal in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Same-sex marriages have resumed in a 13th state, California, after the high court lifted a stay order.

    While Section 3 of DOMA was struck down last week in the 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court let stand Section 2, which allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages authorized in other states. Other issues surrounding whether a same-sex couple is still married if the couple moves from a state that recognizes same-sex marriage to one that does not are “not even close to being litigated,” J.D. Piro, senior vice president and national practice leader for the health care law group at AonHewitt, said.

    Pension plans that define “spouse” as an opposite-sex partner are going to have to amend plan language so that “same-sex spouses legally wed under state laws” benefit from ERISA’s protections, according to Grace and her colleagues Paul Strella and Paul Tucker, also of Mercer’s Washington Resource Group, in a brief to clients.

    The question with regard to a plan participant married to a same-sex spouse living in Georgia, which doesn’t recognize same sex marriages, is: Does the Georgia-based employer’s retirement plan have to offer qualified joined and survivor annuities (QJSA) spousal protection benefits?

    “The question is: if you have a same-sex marriage does that rule apply? Or are you treated as unmarried?” Grace said.

    Among the issues still unaddressed, the Mercer experts also said, is whether the Supreme Court ruling is retroactive to 1996 when DOMA was signed into law, and whether the ruling applies to plans from the moment the court issued its decision on June 26.

    Adding another wrinkle to the same-sex protections, rule-makers are going to have to grapple with this twister: Does federal recognition apply to a foreign same-sex marriage of a U.S. citizen from a state that recognizes same-sex marriage but now living in a state that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage? That, too, is an open question.

    One point often overlooked from the perspective of the employer isn’t so much whether the employer should pay or deny the benefit, Grace said. The more salient question is to whom the benefit should go: the same-sex spouse or to the child of a same-sex couple.

    For example, take the case of two men legally married to each other in Iowa and now living in Nebraska, which does not recognize same-sex marriage. One of the men names his daughter as the beneficiary of his 401(k) account without his spouse’s consent.

    Does the 401(k) plan administrator honor the beneficiary designee as long as her father resides in Nebraska? Or is the designation null and void if the couple moves to another state that recognizes the same-sex marriage?

    “The employer is going to pay somebody, the question is whom do you pay?” Grace said.

    Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at Cyril.Tuohy@innfeedback.com.

    Originally Posted at InsuranceNewsNet on July 8, 2013 by Cyril Tuohy.

    Categories: Industry Articles
    currency