A prenuptial agreement alone does not meet ERISA requirements.

The Sixth Circuit recently considered a case called Greenebaum Doll & McDonald PLLC v. Sandler in which a man's children from a prior marriage sued their father's widow to enforce a prenuptial agreement in which the widow waived any claim to her husband's retirement benefits.

The Sixth Circuit held that a United States District Court properly dismissed the suit because the prenuptial agreement did not meet ERISA's requirements. Although in the prenuptial agreement the widow had agreed that she waived and released any claim to her husband's retirement benefits, the husband's employer's retirement plan designated the surviving spouse as the beneficiary of any retirement benefits unless the participant formally changed that designation. the husband did not change the designation, so upon the husband's death, his widow received all the retirement benefits despite the provisions of the prenuptial agreement.