Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: your divorce decree does not change who your 401(k) pays. For employer retirement plans and employer life insurance, federal law preempts the state statutes that automatically revoke an ex-spouse’s beneficiary designation — the Supreme Court settled it in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001) — so the plan pays whoever is on the form, even an ex-spouse, even decades later. The waiver language in your decree does not fix this; only a new beneficiary form does.
The map: which accounts follow which rule
ERISA plans (401(k), 403(b) generally, employer life insurance): the form controls, full stop — the Court reinforced in Kennedy that plan administrators pay the documents on file, and heirs are left suing the ex afterward to claw it back, sometimes successfully, always expensively. Individual life insurance and non-ERISA contracts: here state revocation-on-divorce statutes CAN work — Sveen v. Melin (2018) upheld them — but roughly half the states have such statutes and they differ, so “the law fixed it” is a coin flip you should never take. IRAs: not ERISA — state law and the custodian’s contract govern, which means the same coin flip. Wills: most states do revoke ex-spouse provisions automatically — which lulls people into assuming the same happens everywhere else. It does not.
The one-hour fix
The week the decree enters: pull every beneficiary form — 401(k), old 401(k)s at former employers, IRAs, life insurance, HSA, transfer-on-death registrations — and re-file each one. If the decree REQUIRES keeping the ex as beneficiary (it happens, especially securing support), that is a deliberate choice the form should match. The rest of the divorce-year clocks: the timing calculator · splitting the accounts themselves: what a QDRO must say.
A one-hour paperwork sweep versus a lawsuit your heirs might lose.
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