Joinder of a California pension or retirement plan

Joinder of a California pension or retirement plan is the topic of this blog post.  Joinder is the legal process by which a pension or retirement plan is "joined" as a party to a dissolution (divorce), legal separation or nullity proceeding in California.

It should be stressed that not every pension or retirement plan needs to be joined. The following pension and retirement plans must be joined as a party.

Governmental plan of a city, county, state, public school or university or other public agency.

Plan (qualified or non-qualified) covering only business owners or and spouses or employees of a church.

Federal government pension and retirement plans do not have to be joined as a party. However, they do require a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) be issued by the Court specifying the non-employee spouses interest in the plan. Also many plans covering employees who work for private industry also do not have to be joined as a party, neither do Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’s) or Roth IRA’s. These may be divided simply by Judgment or Order of the Court.

California Judicial Council form FL-318-INFO also known as the Retirement Plan Joinder-Information Sheet lists numerous different pension and retirement plans, and indicates whether or not they require joinder. The latest version of the form can be viewed and downloaded by using the link shown below.

http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/fl318info.pdf

In California the process of joinder is completed by the filing of several forms with the Court Clerk. The forms include detailed information about the employee, list the full name of the pension or retirement plan, and include the dates or marriage and separation as well as other pertinent information.

Upon the filing of the forms, the Court Clerk issues an Order of Joinder. The Order and the other forms are then served on the pension or retirement plan, which then has thirty (30) days from the date it is served to file a response. A blank response must be served along with the other Joinder paperwork.

The fact that the Court Clerk is authorized to issue an Order of Joinder greatly simplifies things as this means that the Joinder Order can be obtained without appearing before a Judge. Thus the Order of Joinder can be obtained very quickly if needed.

The Family Code in California now requires that a pension or retirement plan must be joined as a party to the divorce proceeding prior to the entry of judgment granting dissolution of the status of the marriage unless joinder is precluded or made unnecessary by Title 1 of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 et seq.), as amended (ERISA), or any other applicable law. See Family Code § 2337(10)(d)(1).

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The author of this blog post, Stan Burman, is an entrepreneur and freelance paralegal who has worked in California and Federal litigation since 1995 and has created over 300 sample legal documents for California and Federal litigation. If you are in need of assistance with any California or Federal litigation matters, Mr. Burman is available on a freelance basis. Mr. Burman may be contacted by e-mail at DivParalgl@yahoo.com for more information. He accepts payments through PayPal which means that you can pay using most credit or debit cards.


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DISCLAIMER:

Please note that the author of this blog post, Stan Burman is NOT an attorney and as such is unable to provide any specific legal advice. The author is NOT engaged in providing any legal, financial, or other professional services, and any information contained in this blog post is NOT intended to constitute legal advice.

The materials and information contained in this blog post have been prepared by Stan Burman for informational purposes only and are not legal advice. Transmission of the information contained in this blog post is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, any business relationship between the author and any readers. Readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel.