The Human Rights Campaign reports that the pension bill signed into law by President Bush yesterday helps protect lesbian and gay couples.
HRC says:
The act includes provisions allowing non-spouse beneficiaries to roll over retirement benefits, and adding non-spouse beneficiaries to the retirement plan hardship distribution rules.In all except for a handful of states, same-sex couples are currently without any kind of legal protections or benefits. That is why this new law IS truly good news -- and signed by Bush, of all people. Will wonders never cease.
HRC said it worked "without fanfare" for three years to get these provisions passed.
You don't suppose Bush's people forgot to read the bill? Actually, what happened is that the new law allows any two people to rollover benefits and add non-spouse beneficiaries. If the bill had just included lesbians and gays, Bush would have undoubtedly vetoed it.
The HRC page includes detailed information on how couples can take advantage of these new benefits and has links to financial experts who can answer your questions.
1 comment:
I think the new legislation is wonderful as it affects same-sex couples, but we shouldn't forget that it will probably ultimately lead to the end of pensions as we know them. Perhaps we can use this legislation to push for the transfer of social security benefits to the same identified beneficiaries as the pensions?! That would be an amazing change that would affect many more people.
Nonetheless, it is nice to see some good news.
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