ExxonMobil Told to Give Employee’s Life Insurance to His Ex-Wife

ExxonMobil Corp. was told by the Tenth Circuit Thursday to give the ex-wife of a deceased employee the proceeds of his life insurance policy, despite its protestations that the couple’s divorce decree wasn’t a qualified domestic relations order under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

When Billy Steele and Stela Festini-Steele divorced in 2014, they filled out a check-box form. One box they checked said “The parties agree to the following terms relating to all life insurance.” They also checked the “other” box and wrote that Billy “will carry life insurance on Co-Petitioner Stela Festini-Steele as beneficiary until daughter A.S. ...