Classification of Deferred Employment Benefits

Classification of Deferred Employment Benefits. (a) A deferred employment benefit attributable to employment of a spouse occurring after the determination date is marital property. (b) A deferred employment benefit attributable to employment of a spouse occurring during marriage and partly before and partly after the determination date is mixed property. The marital property component of that mixed property is the part resulting from multiplying the entire benefit by a fraction of which the numerator is the period of employment giving rise to the benefit that occurred after the determination date and during marriage and the denominator is the total period of the employment. Unless provided otherwise in a decree, marital property agreement, or written consent, valuation of a deferred employment benefit that is mixed property shall be made as of the death of a spouse or a dissolution. (c) Ownership or disposition provisions of a deferred employment benefit which conflict with subsections (a) and (b) of this section are ineffective between spouses, former spouses, or between a surviving spouse and a person claiming under a deceased spouse’s disposition at death. (d) If an administrator of an arrangement for deferred employment benefits makes payments or takes actions in accordance with the arrangement and the administrator’s records, the administrator is not liable because of those payments or actions unless, at the time of the payments or actions, it had actual knowledge of inconsistent provisions of a decree or marital property agreement or of an adverse claim by a spouse, former spouse, surviving spouse, or a person claiming under a deceased spouse’s disposition at death. Source: PL 7-22, § 16.