A divorced spouse is treated as having predeceased the IRA account owner unless the failure to update beneficiaries was intentional. ERISA is a federal law that sets minimum standards for retirement plans in private industry.Generally, an ERISA plan participant can select just about anyone to be their beneficiary. The Court found that the state statute "binds ERISA plan administrators to a particular choice of rules for determining beneficiary status. Online legal forms are useful for frequent, basic, and necessary tasks. A beneficiary becomes entitled to plan benefits because of the participant's death or a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO).