Expert: Allen - 5/16/2006

Question
My dad recently passed on. He married a women and they have been together for five years.  He forgot to add her onto his pension for survivior benifits (my mom was still listed who is deceased as well).  It seems like a typical mistake and by showing proof couldn't his wife would be able to collect? They just tell us well...sorry.  What can we do...sounds like this may happen to many people.  Thank you in advance.

Answer
Based on your question I assume that your father participated in a defined benefit pension plan. My answer is based on this assumption.

The way most defined benefit plans work is that at retirement the employee can choose either a life annuity which pays a monthly income as long as he lives or a REDUCED annuity (known as a joint and survivor annuity) which pays a smaller amount as long as either the employee or his wife live. For example an employee can elect $1000 as long as he lives or $800 as long as either he or his wife live. It sounds like your father chose the larger amount in the form of a life annuity. In this case there's nothing that can be done. On the other hand if he chose a joint and survivor annuity and the plan used the wrong wife in the calculations, then there might be a way to have them continue the income to the second wife. I would ask the plan administrator to let you know what he had elected.