A decades-long legal battle is happening over a massive retirement fund.
The deceased Pennsylvania man's former girlfriend is set to inherit nearly $1 million from his pension plan, leaving his brothers really furious.
Margaret Losinger, the 68-year-old ex-girlfriend of the late Jeffrey Rolison, is listed on the man's will to receive $1 million from his pension plan.
In 1987, when Rolinson was working at a P&G plant, he named Losinger as the sole beneficiary on a handwritten form for his retirement savings plan.
This designation often takes precedence over a will, even though the couple had broken up two years earlier.
Rolison's brothers, Richard and Brian, were unaware of Losinger's beneficiary status until after Rolison's death at age 59.
The brothers have been fighting Losinger and Rolison's former employer, P&G, in court, arguing that the company failed to properly inform Rolison about updating his beneficiaries.
P&G contends that it provided adequate warnings, including online statements and service provider notifications, about the need to review and update beneficiary information.
However, the court sided with P&G and Losinger, ruling that the decades-old beneficiary designation should stand.
The brothers have appealed the decision. They do not want Losinger to get a $1 million retirement account.
Lawyers who work with employee benefits say this case shows a growing problem.
As Americans save a lot of money for retirement over their working lives, more families are fighting over who gets that money when someone dies.
Retirement plans could do more to remind people to update who gets their money when they die. But the main responsibility is with the employees to keep their information current.
Health insurance plans make people re-confirm their beneficiaries every year. Retirement plans do not do this, so the beneficiary information can get outdated over time.
This is probably why there was confusion in Rolison's case. He had carefully updated his life insurance beneficiary but seemed to have forgotten about his pension plan beneficiary.
A grandfather passed away in 2020, leaving behind an estate of $637,000. Instead of dividing it equally among his 5 grandchildren, he left each of them only $63.
The grandchildren and their mother were extremely disappointed and took the matter to court.
According to the lawyer's explanation, the grandfather had excluded the grandchildren from the will because they did not visit him during his hospitalizations for a lung condition.
He was very disappointed that they did not reach out to him at the end of his life.
Despite the grandchildren's efforts to challenge the will in court, the judge ultimately ruled that the 2018 will was reasonable given the circumstances, even though it is commonly expected for grandchildren to inherit equally when a parent predeceases.
The judge acknowledged the disappointment of the claimants but upheld the will's validity.
