On June 10, 2010, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued final regulations relating to the time and order of the issuance of domestic relations orders. These regulations finalize the interim final rule published March 7, 2007 by DOL pursuant to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA). Under section 1001 of the PPA, Congress instructed DOL to issue regulations to clarify that a domestic relations order otherwise meeting the requirements to be a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) under section 206(d)(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) or section 401(a)(13) of the Internal Revenue Code will not fail to be treated as a QDRO solely because (1) the order is issued after, or revises, another domestic relations order or QDRO, or (2) of the time at which it is issued. PPA also requires that the regulations clarify that these orders are subject to all of the same requirements and protections that apply to QDROs, including the provisions of section 206(d)(3)(H) of ERISA and section 414(p)(7) of the Code.
The regulations, which are effective July 30, 2010, are substantially similar to the interim final rule, but several changes were made to the examples, and one additional example was added.
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