Divorce

Going through a divorce can be a very difficult process. There are many issues that need to be considered and many things may be affected, which includes your Health Fund and Pension Plan. The following may be of help to simplify the necessary steps you need to take to ensure that we are notified properly.

Forms:

• Health Fund Life Insurance Designation of Beneficiary
• Pension Plan Designation of Beneficiary Form
• QDRO Procedures
• Model QDRO for Participant Not in Pay Status
• Model QDRO for Participant in Pay Status

Additional Information:

Health Benefits

• Eligibility
• Extended Coverage/COBRA
• Dependent Premium
• Life Insurance

Pension

• Retirement Payment Options
• Retirement, Supporting Documents

Pension SPD

• PDF of Complete SPD

Benefit Plan Checklist

• Your former spouse will remain covered under your Health Fund coverage until the last day of the month in which your divorce is final. In order to ensure that your former spouse is eligible for COBRAThe acronym for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 which allows for the purchase of coverage after loss of eligibility due to certain qualifying events. Continuation Coverage, please provide a copy of your final divorce decree within 60 days of the date of divorce. Be sure to include a cover letter with your name, your ID number, your former spouse's name, address and telephone number. If the Health Fund does not receive notice of the divorce within 60 days of the divorce, your divorced spouse will lose his or her COBRA rights. Additionally, a delay in timely notification may make you liable for any health claims paid by the Fund for services rendered after your spouse ceased to be eligible.
• If your spouse is the only dependent on your Health Fund coverage, you may discontinue paying the quarterly Dependent Premium
• You may want to review your beneficiaryThis term means the person or persons whom a Participant last designates to receive benefits in the event of his or her death. However, if you have been married at least one year at the time of your death, your spouse will be your Beneficiary unless you and your spouse select a different Beneficiary. If there is no surviving designated Beneficiary, please refer to Section: NAMING OR CHANGING A BENEFICIARY BEFORE RETIREMENT on page 33 for details about the Plan's rules for designating a beneficiary and for paying benefits to a minor. Beneficiary designation forms are available from the Administrative Office. designation with the Health Fund and the Pension Plan and make any changes you deem appropriate. If you do not fill out a new beneficiary designation with either the Health Fund or Pension Plan, any life insurance or Pre-Retirement Death Benefit that may be due will be paid to the beneficiary listed on the most recent designation, which may be an ex-spouse. If you would like to change your beneficiary designation for your life insurance, you must complete a Health Fund Life Insurance Beneficiary Form . If you would like to change your beneficiary designation for the Pre-Retirement Death Benefit under the Pension Plan, please complete a Pension Plan Designation of Beneficiary Form . Changing your beneficiary for the Health Fund does not change your beneficiary for the Pension Plan and vice versa. Please see Forms referenced on this page.
• If you are in the process of a divorce, you should make sure your attorney knows that you have an interest in the Producer-Writers Guild of America Pension Plan, which may be community property.
• You and your ex-spouse may decide that the Pension Plan will be awarded to you. If that is the case, you may want to state in the court order that the Pension Plan is to be your sole and separate property.
• If you and your ex-spouse decide that any portion of your benefit will be awarded to your ex-spouse, then you may want to mention it in your court order that the Pension Plan is to be divided under a Qualified Domestic Relations OrderA judgment, decree or order which meets certain requirements and provides that all or a portion of a Participant's benefit is to be paid to an alternate payee (a spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent of the Participant) ("QDRO"). In addition, the parties will need to file a QDRO with the court and the Plan. The Pension Plan cannot divide the Participant's pension and pay benefits to anyone other than the Participant without a QDRO.
• If you and your ex-spouse want to divide a portion of your pension, the parties may file a Qualified Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO") with the Court and the Plan. A QDRO must meet certain requirements, as stated in the QDRO Procedures, and describes the amount your ex-spouse will be awarded and under what terms that benefit is awarded. The Plan does offer a Model QDRO. The two model QDROs are different depending upon whether or not you are receiving a pension benefit at the time your QDRO is filed with the Court. Please see Forms referenced on this page.