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Discharge of pension benefits, and divorce

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  • 01-10-2006, 12:59 AM
    Sassy
    Discharge of pension benefits, and divorce
    My husband's ex was awarded part of his non-disability pension benefits and she was ordered to complete QDRO. She did not get it done and we eventually filed chapter 7. Discharged 3/05 but she filed adversarial proceeding to stop discharge of debts owed to her. There were no support obligation as we have the child and court specifically refused to order spousal support. We are in CA.

    The bankruptcy court gave her until end of year to either get QDRO done or set for further hearing. She didn't do anything so court issued Intent to Dismiss and then Notice of Dismissal. It now appears her adversarial complaint is done. Where does that leave us?

    Does this mean that he doesn't have to share his pension benefits or is this dischargeable now that she let her adversarial drop? He is currently getting benefits due to disability. She was supposed to get her share of past benefits, back to date he began to collect benefits. We think back benefits are discharged but we are confused about future benefits because QDRO has never been done.

    Can you advise where we might stand with this?
    Thank you
  • 01-10-2006, 02:08 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    QDRO Rights
    If no QDRO was ever entered, then the plan administrator will not have any basis to pay the benefits to the ex-spouse. She may be able to bring some form of equitable action to try to recover "her share" at that time, or try to bring an action to get the QDRO in place despite her neglect of the matter; it's hard to gauge her chance of success without knowing more of the circumstances. Perhaps your husband's divorce lawyer can help him pin down his rights (and her remedies).
  • 01-10-2006, 03:39 PM
    Sassy
    Thank you so much for your response. Can we assume that the obligation was discharged in bankruptcy because she was named in our bankruptcy and all obligations to her are discharged since the adversarial complaint has been dismissed?

    It seems you are saying she might have legal recourse in another court (like back to family law or civil court) but that she has none through bankruptcy. Are we understandng that correctly?

    We were actually trying to assist her in getting the QDRO completed so that we could get the adversarial decided and finished and move on with our life. We gave her all the numbers even though we didn't have to do so but now we are wondering if we should just leave it to her to take whatever action she might have available to her and if she does nothing then it is her loss.
    Neither party has an attorney any longer due to cost and both having filed bankruptcy which included a minimal amount of attorney fees for us (our attorney was very satisified with the more than $50,000 he got from the case so he had no problem with our bankruptcy). He actually advised us to file.

    We obtained information as to the division of the pension and the numbers from the attorney for the pension and had a sample form QDRO provided. The division was pretty straight forward so we never understood why the ex wouldn't get it finished. Well, we do understand, she wanted a bigger piece of the pie than she was going to get.

    If she has to file another action somewhere, it is highly unlikey she will do so because she can't afford it. Based on the bankruptcy discharge, can we now just move on and not worry about the QDRO unless she takes some other form of action? The final judgment in the divorce was a property settlement only and did not contain any support issues. Child support is being handled in the county where we now reside as we have custody. The court specifically addressed spousal maintenance and refused to order it.

    Are we able to move on and leave her to deal with this iF and WHEN she ever does?
    Thank you for your assistance.
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