Indianapolis Litigation

Your friendly Indianapolis attorney at Alerding Castor Hewitt, LLP here with an overdue update with some possible interest for our business law clients.  Back at the end of September, the Indiana Supreme Court decided Bingley v. Bingley, a marriage dissolution case, and concluded that the employer-provided health insurance benefits of a retiree constituted an asset once they had vested and should be included in the marital estate for the distribution of property.  You can read the full opinion here, including the strenuous dissent.
 

It remains to be seen what the ramifications will be of this decision, or whether the state legislature will take action based on the dissent’s suggestion that the Court has departed from the state legislature’s intent.  Some individuals who might be affected include members of the military or retirees from certain companies with generous retirement plans.  Because health insurance coverage can be so expensive, employer-provided coverage can be a valuable item for the recipient, particularly given the ever-increasing longevity of the average individual.  Moreover, the decision might open the door to a finding that other, non-monetary retirement benefits -- like discounts on company products or services – could be included in the calculation as marital assets.  And, of course, as a litigator I wonder how long it will  be before someone will use the case to push the envelope and expand the scope of the decision to other areas of the law, or has enough concern about this decision to include a contract provision to address it. 

I’ll be interested to see how the law develops.  Health insurance coverage is naturally a sensitive topic these days, and those who are fortunate to have employer-provided coverage are anxious to keep it – but no doubt reluctant  for it  to be deemed an asset and all of the implications that such a determination entails.