Many plan administrators and participants have struggled with how to satisfy certain qualified plan spousal consent rules while social distancing guidelines have been in effect. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provided much-needed relief on that topic in Notice 2020-42, published on June 3, 2020 (the Notice).
By way of background, IRS regulations require that in the case of a participant election that is required to be witnessed by a plan representative or a notary public (such as a spouse's consent to the waiver of a qualified joint and survivor annuity), the individual making the election must sign in the physical presence of a plan representative or a notary public. While the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) provides tax breaks for certain coronavirus-related distributions from both defined benefit and defined contribution plans, it did not liberalize the distribution requirements for defined benefit plans. The combination of social distancing and the continued physical presence requirement has proved to be a hindrance for married participants seeking distribution of pension plan benefits in a form other than a qualified joint and survivor annuity.
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Originally published June 12, 2020.
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