Windsor Decision Affects Retirement Accounts

Last May, Susan Foreman Jordan in our Pittsburgh office issued a very informative alert on the impact of the United States Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Windsor on the IRS and Department of Labor recognition of same-sex marriages.

Susan identifies and explains how the IRS and Department of Labor clarified, so as to avoid any ambiguity, that if the same-sex marriage was legally entered into, then they would consider it a valid marriage even if the parties were domiciled in a jurisdiction which does not recognize same-sex marriage.

More technically, the IRS issued a Notice (Notice 2014-19) confirming that for qualified retirement plans and other employee benefit programs must recognize same-sex marriages as of June 26, 2013 when the Windsor decision was made, but that they do not have to extend retroactive recognition to that marriage. Susan expands upon that point and amending plan language to confirm to the Windsor decision.