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CCH® BENEFITS — 03/11/11

Same-Sex Domestic Partners Added To Federal Employees’ Annuitant List

from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: Same-sex domestic partners have been added to the list of annuitants who are eligible to receive a survivor annuity under the federal employees’ retirement program, according to new proposed regulations from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The proposed rules, which appeared in the March 3 Federal Register, would amend the current rules that allow retiring employees and Members of Congress, who submit evidence to demonstrate that they are in good health and who are not retiring on disability, to elect a reduced annuity to provide an insurable interest survivor annuity.

Under current rules, an insurable interest in the continued life of a retiring employee or Member of Congress is presumed to exist for these relationships: spouses, former spouses, blood or adopted relatives closer than first cousins, common law spouses, or persons to whom employees or Members of Congress are engaged to be married.

The proposed rules would add “current same-sex domestic partner” and “former same-sex domestic partner” to that list.

The proposed rules define same sex domestic partner as follows:

According to the proposed rules, the term “same-sex domestic partner” means a person in a domestic partnership with an employee or annuitant of the same sex and the term “domestic partnership” is defined as a committed relationship between two adults, of the same sex, in which the partners—

(i) Are each other's sole domestic partner and intend to remain so indefinitely;
(ii) Maintain a common residence, and intend to continue to do so (or would maintain a common residence but for an assignment abroad or other employment-related, financial, or similar obstacle);
(iii) Are at least 18 years of age and mentally competent to consent to contract;
(iv) Share responsibility for a significant measure of each other's financial obligations;
(v) Are not married or joined in a civil union to anyone else;
(vi) Are not the domestic partner of anyone else;
(vii) Are not related in a way that, if they were of opposite sex, would prohibit legal marriage in the U.S. jurisdiction in which the domestic partnership was formed; and
(viii) Are willing to certify, if required by OPM, that they understand that willful falsification of any documentation required to establish that an individual is in a domestic partnership may lead to disciplinary action and the recovery of the cost of benefits received related to such falsification, as well as constitute a criminal violation.

Comments, which must be received by April 4, 2011, should be identified by number 3206-AM20 and can be sent through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

For more information on the proposed rules, contact OPM’s Kristine Prentice or Roxann Johnson at (202) 606-0299.

For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.

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