[WSBAPT] Boeing Pension and Former Spouse

[Chad Horner]

I have a potential client who divorced her husband a year before his death. In administering his estate, the family discovered that he had a Boeing pension that still named his ex-wife as beneficiary. At the time of the divorce, there was no QDRO that addressed this pension. Boeing now claims that the former spouse is not entitled to the pension, citing Washington’s law that revokes such designations to a former spouse. This seems to fly in the face of well-settled law (i.e., Egelhoff, Lundy, etc.) that holds that ERISA preempts such state statutes. Has anyone had this experience with Boeing? Am I missing a nuance in the way these pension plans are handled and structured?
Chad Horner
CURRAN LAW FIRM
555 West Smith Street
Kent, WA 98032
T 253 852 2345
F 253 859 8037
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