Article 9 – Inalienability

No Participant or other person having or claiming to have any interest of any kind or character in or under this Plan or in any payment therefrom will have any right to sell, assign, transfer, convey, hypothecate, anticipate, or otherwise dispose of such interest, and such interest will not be subject to any liabilities or obligations of or any bankruptcy proceedings, claims of creditors, attachment, garnishment, execution, levy, or other legal process against such person or his property.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Plan will pay benefits in accordance with the applicable requirements of any Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), which term, for the purposes of this Plan, means a state court order satisfying the following requirements:

1. Such order must relate to the provision of child support, alimony payments or marital property rights of a spouse, former spouse, child or other dependent which recognizes the existence of such an alternate payee’s right to, or assigns to such an alternate payee the right to, receive all or a portion of a Participant’s benefits.
   
   
2. Such order must specify:
   
   
   1. The name and last known mailing address of the Participant and each alternate payee covered by the order;
      
      
   2. The amount or percentage of benefits to be paid to each alternate payee, or the manner in which such amount or percentage is to be determined;
      
      
   3. The number of payments or period to which such order applies; and
      
      
   4. Each plan to which such order applies.
      
      
3. Such order must not:
   
   
   1. Require the Plan to provide any type or form of benefits, or any option, not otherwise provided under the Plan, except as provided in (d) below;
      
      
   2. Require the Plan to provide increased benefits determined on the basis of actuarial value; or
      
      
   3. Require the payment of benefits to an alternate payee which are required to be paid to another alternate payee under another order previously determined to be a QDRO.
      
      
4. Such order may:
   
   
   1. Provide that the former spouse shall be treated as a surviving spouse of the Participant as to accrued benefits earned during the marriage to the former spouse; or
      
      
   2. Require that payments be made to an alternate payee on or after the date the Participant is eligible for an Early Retirement Pension in any form other than a joint and survivor annuity, even though the Participant has not ceased Covered Service.
      
      
5. If an alternate payee to whom benefits would have been payable under a QDRO dies before any such benefits are payable, then unless the QDRO provides for the payments to be made to another alternate payee or to a beneficiary of the alternate payee, any interest of the alternate payee in the benefits shall terminate and revert to the Participant.
   
   
6. No domestic relations order shall be considered a QDRO until it has been approved as such, in writing, by the Plan.
   
   
7. During any period in which the Plan has received a proposed QDRO and the issue of whether the order is a QDRO is being determined, the Plan shall separately account for amounts which would have been payable to the alternate payee during such period if the order had been determined to be a QDRO (referred to as segregated amounts). If, within the 18-month period beginning with the date the first payment would be required under the order, it is determined that the order is a QDRO, the segregated amounts shall be payable to the person or persons entitled thereto under the QDRO. If within the 18-month period it is determined that the order is not a QDRO, or the issue of whether the order is a QDRO is not resolved, the Plan shall pay the segregated amounts to the person or persons who would have been entitled to such amounts if there had been no order. Any determination that an order is a QDRO made after the 18-month period shall apply prospectively only.
   
   
8. The Plan shall not make a determination that an order is a QDRO if the order requires payment of benefits which were paid prior to the Plan’s receipt of the QDRO.
   
   
9. The alternate payee shall notify the Trustees in writing of the intent to commence benefits. The Plan may require the alternate payee to submit documentation in support of the application to commence benefits.
   
   
10. The Trustees of the Plan will establish reasonable written procedures to determine the qualified status of domestic relations orders and to administer distributions under qualified orders.