Anne Prenner Schmidt, Esq., Master of Laws
Picture a divorce after 30 years of marriage. There is a house, a vacation home, a 401(k), a pension, a brokerage account and a folder of stock options nobody fully understands. When your finances look like that, settling everything at a conference table instead of a...
In many divorce settlements, retirement assets are addressed in a single paragraph near the end of the agreement: “The accounts shall be divided equally by Qualified Domestic Relations Order.” On paper, that sounds straightforward. In practice, it rarely is. For many...
The Trump administration’s recent executive order directing the Department of Labor to open 401(k) plans to alternative investments like private equity and cryptocurrency may sound appealing, but from a legal perspective, this policy shift creates serious problems for...
Despite overwhelming public support for marriage equality, lawmakers are pushing to overturn Obergefell. As an employee benefits attorney and ally, I want to help same-sex couples protect their families against this political assault. The American people have spoken...
A prenuptial agreement can be a smart choice for a couple about to get married. A prenup can help a couple decide how to split up their marital property, in the event of a divorce, if they decide against splitting it up 50-50. This can be especially enticing to a...
Probate is a legal process that occurs after someone passes away. It involves the court’s verification of a will, ensuring that it is valid, and that the person named as executor (a person appointed to mandate the deceased person’s estate during the probate process)...
During a divorce, parties often have employer sponsored retirement accounts to assign pursuant to their marital settlement agreement. To assign these accounts incident to divorce, the parties must enter a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (“QDRO.”) A QDRO is a...
Did you recently complete a divorce in Arizona, Florida, or Texas but you or your spouse earned a pension benefit from the state of Illinois? If you or your ex-spouse participated in an Illinois State Pension like TRS, IMRF, PABF, FABF, SURS, SERS, JRS or any other...
The first steps of protecting LGBTQ+ federal benefits came with United States v. Windsor in 2013, which declared that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violated the 5th amendment. This determined that the government cannot discriminate against LGBTQ+ couples when...
Couples can agree, before (prenuptial agreement) or after (postnuptial agreement) marriage, on how assets will be divided upon a dissolution of marriage. Prenuptial agreements can foster financial transparency and open communication between partners. Through the...