Late Husband's Company Pension

[stevejr]

I will try to make this short.
My mother and father are divorced.My father remarried in the 80s and passed away in 2007.
So my fathers work pension went to his current wife at that time and not my mother.Does not sound fair but thats what happened.
My step mother got married again in 2009,so now my question is;
Does my mother now qualify for my late fathers pension now ?

Added note:
social security benefit increase went to both my mom and step mom - 2007
company pension is not a 401 plan
Mother and Father were married and divorced in Connecticut.
My step mother remarried in Connecticut.
My mother and father were divorced approx. in 1978
My father worked for this company since my mother and father were married.
Thank you for reading.

[aaron]

Any rights would have been worked out at the time of the divorce, and commemorated in both the divorce judgment and, if your mother received a share of the pension, an order that would have been filed with the plan administrator (probably a qualified domestic relations order, or QDRO). Thus, you will need to review the divorce judgment and any associated orders, either from your mother's records or by reviewing the court file (which is likely archived at the courthouse where the divorce occurred).

[stevejr]

Thank you for reading and answering. I have read the Divorce decree and there is no mention at all of any pension or QDRO or anything about retirement or savings. It talks about visitations and the amount of child support.That is it as far as money is concerned.There was no real estate.
When I got divorced I had a QADRO put into mine so that my x could not get my retirement pension but that was 1995. This divorce took place around 1978. Not sure if they had that at that time.

Does my mother have a right to the pension,or at least a fighting chance, since nothing was written in the divorce decree about pension or retirement accounts ?
Is it worth taking this to a lawyer and having a Judge review it ?

Thanks for reading
Steve

[Mr. Knowitall]

If there's nothing in the divorce decree giving her a share of the pension, and she didn't make an issue of it during her ex-husband's lifetime, I doubt that she'll have any luck trying to open the issue. Further, a QDRO needs to be filed before a plan goes into pay status. Here, not only did that happen many years ago, but all beneficiaries known to the plan administrator are deceased and the pension has been closed out.

That said, it probably won't cost her anything to have a family lawyer review the court orders and advise her as to any remedies, so why not? I would be happy to be surprised.

[Bubba Jimmy]

At some point in time a person (and their estate) should be free of any encumberance from a previous marriage. 32 years would certainly be reasonably sufficient for that purpose.