Court Opinion

ID: 9480055
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:36:33.910223+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:27.354250
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
with whom BAUER, Chief Judge, EASTERBROOK and MANION, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting.
This case presents an important issue in the administration of ERISA. In resolving that issue, we have one task: to ascertain and implement the will of Congress. Today’s decision loses sight of that objective. Consequently, unless altered by the Supreme Court or Congress, the majority’s approach stands as a significant impediment to achieving the congressional goal of efficient and certain administration of employee benefit plans.
A.
As the majority quite pointedly notes, ERISA is a federal statute that sets federal standards for pension plans subject to its terms. Part of that federal mandate is contained in section 1104(a)(1)(D).1 That section requires that a plan be administered in accordance with the documents and the instruments of that plan. This statutory command embodies a strong federal policy that all parties — participant, trustee, and beneficiary — be able to ascertain their rights and liabilities with certainty.2 The plan at issue here fulfills that mandate quite explicitly. It provides that the beneficiary of the plan is the person named by the participant “in the last written notice received in the Administrative Office prior to the Participant’s death. It shall be the responsibility of the Participant to notify in writing the Administrative Office of his choice of Beneficiary or any change in Beneficiary.” See R.l at Ex. 1, § 6.4. There is no question that Laurine Brown is the person who, under the terms of the plan, ought to receive the death benefit.
In determining whether the property settlement agreement constitutes a binding waiver of these benefits on the part of Ms. Brown, this federal policy of administering the plan according to its documents must be respected in order to ensure that the purpose of ERISA is effectuated. However, the majority, by its over-reliance on state law principles, loses sight of that federal policy and, consequently, frustrates the congressional intent. Analogous principles of state law often can be helpful in interpreting a federal statute and in fashioning federal common law to close gaps in the legislative scheme. However, this methodology must be employed with extreme caution.3 The ultimate objective is not to fulfill policy objectives of state law but to fulfill the congressional command embodied in the language and structure of the federal statute. Here, ERISA’s command that a plan be administered in accordance with the plan’s documents must be our primary concern in fashioning a waiver rule. The general maxims of state insurance law upon which the majority relies were not, of course, formulated with this explicit command of ERISA in mind. ERISA requires, in order to effectuate the federal policy of certainty in expectations and ease in administration, that beneficiary *285changes be made according to the plan’s documents. The documents require that the beneficiary change be made only by notification to the plan. Therefore, absent such notification by the participant, the waiver is not binding on the beneficiary.4
B.
Even if we accept the proposition that, despite the lack of conformity with the statutory scheme of ERISA, a beneficiary can be considered to have waived an interest in the plan, there remains a difficult question with respect to the intent of Lau-rine Brown that has not been addressed satisfactorily by either the district court or the majority. The purported “waiver” is contained in a property settlement agreement executed by the parties as part of the dissolution of a marriage. That document was designed to adjust property rights between the parties “growing out of the marital or any other relationship now or previously existing between the parties.” R.l at Ex. 5. By its own terms, then, the agreement (or “waiver”) does not deal with each party’s choices with respect to the disposition of property after the divorce. Indeed, it is quite plausible to read the document as establishing nothing more than a waiver on the part of Ms. Brown of her right to insist on a QDRO5 as part of the division of marital property. Indeed, such an interpretation is supported by the affidavit of Ms. Brown. R.16. She alleges that Mr. Brown made clear, both before and after the divorce, that he expected that the benefits would be payable to her. Consequently, despite the division of property at the time of divorce, Ms. Brown had, she maintains, a legitimate expectation that she would receive the benefits. Both she and Mr. Brown were aware that the beneficiary designation had not been changed. At the very least, then, there is a triable issue of fact as to the intent of Ms. Brown with respect to the “waiver” that cannot be resolved on summary judgment.
The majority suggests that, if Mr. Brown wanted Ms. Brown to receive the benefits, he should have executed a new beneficiary form after the divorce. However, it must be remembered that Mr. Brown knew there already was a designation that conformed to the plan on file. He was entitled to conclude that, even if Laurine Brown had waived the benefits at the time of divorce, his decision not to change the beneficiary designation amounted to a redesignation. After all, he had been informed, at the time he made the original designation, that a change could be effected only by his coming to the office and changing the beneficiary.
Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of the district court on the ground that the “waiver” was not effective because a change in the designation of beneficiary was never made by the participant. However, even under the approach of the majority, there remains a triable issue of fact that precludes summary judgment.

. Section 1104(a)(1)(D) of the Labor Title states that a plan administrator
shall discharge his duties with respect to a plan solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries and—
(D) in accordance with the documents and instruments governing the plan ....
29 U.S.C. § 1104(a)(1)(D) (emphasis supplied).

. We have already noted this congressional insistence on certainty of rights and obligations in our interpretation of § 515 of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1145. See Central States, S.E. & S. W. Areas Pension Fund v. Gerber Truck, 870 F.2d 1148, 1153 (7th Cir.1989) (en banc).

.As the majority sets forth in detail, Congress took great care in specifying the precise circumstances in which ERISA’s anti-alienation provisions may be overridden by a state marital property settlement decree. Such care is ample evidence of the prudence and caution necessary in any reliance on “analogous” state law concepts.

. The primary federal legislative policy also renders irrelevant the fact that Ms. Brown's purported waiver is contained in a settlement agreement executed as part of a state divorce action. Even if we were to assume arguendo that the terms of the settlement are a manifestation of state policy because they are contained in a state judgment, we are still constrained to prefer the clear federal congressional mandate.
Similarly, if we were to construe Ms. Brown's waiver as an anticipatory gift to the contingent beneficiary, Dessie Brown, the fact remains that any such anticipatory gift would be valid, if at all, only under state law and such a state rule would contravene the federal policies embodied in ERISA. It would not only frustrate the federal mandate of section 1104(a)(1)(D) but also run afoul of ERISA’s anti-alienation provision. 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d)(1). Indeed, the regulations, accompanying the corresponding tax provision, 26 U.S.C. § 401(a)(13)(A), define "assignment” and "alienation” as "[a]ny direct or indirect arrangement (whether revocable or irrevocable) whereby a party acquires from a participant or beneficiary a right or interest enforceable against the plan...26 C.F.R. § 1.401(a)-13(c)(l)(ii) (emphasis supplied).

. ERISA permits a participant to alienate rights in a plan pursuant to a state court ordered domestic relations order that fulfills specific criteria set forth in ERISA. Such a state domestic relations order is called a “qualified domestic relations order” (QDRO). See 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d)(3).