On September 18, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") issued Technical Release 2013-04 in which the DOL followed the IRS' approach to same-sex marriage by adopting the "state of celebration rule." (For more information on the IRS guidance under DOMA, please see our August 30, 2013 blog entry titled "IRS Issues DOMA Guidance").
Technical Release 2013-04 provides that for the rules and
regulations where the DOL has authority (e.g., Title I of
ERISA, and certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, COBRA,
and HIPAA, among others), the term "spouse" will refer to
any individuals who are lawfully married under any state law,
including individuals married to a person of the same sex who were
legally married in a state that recognizes such marriages, but who
are domiciled in a state that does not recognize such marriages.
Similarly, the term "marriage" will include a same-sex
marriage that is legally recognized as a marriage under any state
law. For these purposes, the term "state" means any state
of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the
Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Wake Island, the Northern
Mariana Islands, any other territory or possession of the United
States, and any foreign jurisdiction having the legal authority to
sanction marriages.
The DOL reasoned that the state of celebration rule, which
recognizes marriages that are valid in the state in which they were
celebrated, regardless of the married couple's state of
domicile, provides a uniform rule of recognition that can be
applied with certainty by stakeholders, including employers, plan
administrators, participants and beneficiaries. The DOL explained
that a rule for employee benefit plans based on state of domicile
would raise significant challenges for employers that operate or
have employees (or former employees) in more than one state or
whose employees move to another state while entitled to benefits,
resulting in substantial financial and administrative burdens on
employers, as well as the administrators of employee benefit
plans.
Although Technical Release 2013-04 does not provide an effective
date and does not address the issue of retroactivity (similar to
the IRS' DOMA guidance), it does provide that the DOL intends
to issue future guidance addressing specific provisions of ERISA
and its regulations.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
