Employer-sponsored retirement benefits can serve as a critical source of income security in the lives of older adults. Pensions are not solely for higher income workers, many employers and unions offer(ed) these types of employee benefits, but it is not always easy to claim the benefits at retirement age, especially if the employment was from a long time ago or if you are a former or surviving spouse of the employee. Many younger workers do not understand or track their retirement benefits. Similarly, many couples fail to recognize pensions as a valuable piece of community property, and either fail to address it at divorce, or do not finish with getting the necessary orders so that both parties receive their share of the benefit. There are two statewide organizations available for free legal services, training and mentoring with pension and Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) cases, Legal Services of Northern California’s Western States Pension Assistance Project and the Center for Access to QDROs. In this session, the Western States Pension Assistance Project will highlight the most common retirement benefit issues, offer tips on spotting these issues in existing legal aid cases, and share tools for addressing common pension problems for participants as well as former and surviving spouses. The Center for Access to QDROs will share information about their organization’s training and support around QDROs, and highlight their use of cutting edge QDRO technology, used to reach those most in need of valuable QDRO income. They will demonstrate the QDROCounsel platform and generate a QDRO live, illustrating the ease at which advocates can handle these matters to help increase low-income clients’ financial stability.
