Cite as: 532 U. S. 141 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
state statutes so that they can determine whether the named beneficiary's status has been "revoked" by operation of law. And in this context the burden is exacerbated by the choice-of-law problems that may confront an administrator when the employer is located in one State, the plan participant lives in another, and the participant's former spouse lives in a third. In such a situation, administrators might find that plan payments are subject to conflicting legal obligations.
To be sure, the Washington statute protects administrators from liability for making payments to the named beneficiary unless they have "actual knowledge of the dissolution or other invalidation of marriage," Wash. Rev. Code § 11.07.010(3)(a) (1994), and it permits administrators to refuse to make payments until any dispute among putative beneficiaries is resolved, § 11.07.010(3)(b). But if administrators do pay benefits, they will face the risk that a court might later find that they had "actual knowledge" of a divorce. If they instead decide to await the results of litigation before paying benefits, they will simply transfer to the beneficiaries the costs of delay and uncertainty.3 Requiring ERISA administrators to master the relevant laws of 50 States and to contend with litigation would undermine the
he filled out the form was not "Donna R. Egelhoff, who is my wife," but rather "a new legal person—'Donna as spouse,' " Brief for Respondents 44. They do not mention, however, that below the "Beneficiary" line on the form, the printed text reads, "First Name [space] Middle Initial [space] Last Name [space] Relationship." See Appendix to opinion of Breyer, J., post. Rather than impute to Mr. Egelhoff the unnatural (and indeed absurd) literalism suggested by respondents, we conclude that he simply provided all of the information requested by the form. The happenstance that "Relationship" was on the same line as the beneficiary's name does not, we think, evince an intent to designate "a new legal person."
3 The dissent observes that the Washington statute permits a plan administrator to avoid resolving the dispute himself and to let courts or parties settle the matter. See post, at 158. This observation only presents an example of how the costs of delay and uncertainty can be passed on to beneficiaries, thereby thwarting ERISA's objective of efficient plan administration. Cf. Fort Halifax Packing Co. v. Coyne, 482 U. S. 1, 9 (1987).
149
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