When an Ex Cashes In
How an Ex-Girlfriend Received a Million Dollar Payout
by Madeline Ross Mojica , Esq . Law Office of Annette Z . P . Ross , PL
As estate planning attorneys know , the estate plan that we prepare for our clients is just one piece of the puzzle to ensure our clients ’ wishes are met . Another aspect we must discuss with our clients is their beneficiary designations on their various accounts , as outdated beneficiary designations could impact or seriously jeopardize their wishes . One example of this is what happened to Jeffrey Rolison ’ s P & G retirement account .
On June 12 , 2024 , The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “ Old Beneficiary Form Gave His Ex $ 1 Million ” by Ashlea Ebeling . After reading the article and discussing it with the other attorneys in my office , we decided to post it at the front table to give our clients a real-life example of the consequences of forgetting to update or check beneficiary designations . In Jeffrey Rolison ’ s case , failing to update his beneficiary designation resulted in his long-lost girlfriend standing to receive his retirement account , worth over $ 1 million .
Jeffrey Rolison met Margaret Sjostedt in the 1980s while playing frisbee in the park . They quickly fell in love and moved in together . In 1987 Sjostedt worked as a server and Rolison found a job at a Proctor & Gamble ( P & G ) plant . Rolison joined the company ’ s profit-sharing and savings plan and designated his then live-in-girlfriend as the sole beneficiary to the account .
As you could have guessed , the relationship did not work out and Sjostedt moved out 2 years later . Thereafter she married , changing her last name to Losinger , and had two children . Rolison also moved on and met a new partner , Mary Murray , with whom he lived with until they separated in 2014 .
The next year Rolison died at age 59 , single and without children . Rolison had no Will upon his passing and left no guidance on who should inherit his home , cars , and cats . His surviving brothers , Brian and Richard Rolison , hired a local estate lawyer in Pennsylvania to assist them with getting appointed as co-executors . Once appointed they received the shocking news that the girlfriend who once dated their brother for two years in the late-1980 ’ s is the one to inherit his P & G plan account , which
grew to $ 1.15 million by 2020 . It appears that the account was the most valuable asset of his estate .
Of course , the brothers moved forward with an action against P & G and Losinger to contest the beneficiary designation . Making the issue more complicated ( and expensive ), P & G also brought in Mary Murray as a potential common-law-spouse claimant . The Federal Court ordered that Murray was not entitled to the money , but neither were the brothers : the Court ordered P & G to award the money to Losinger .
The brothers argued that P & G violated its fiduciary duty by failing to adequately inform Rolison of his beneficiary designation . P & G responded that it had provided notice to Rolison when it changed service providers , and on his monthly statements warning him that no designation had been made online and that any previously written beneficiary designation would be on file , but not viewable online . In Proctor & Gamble U . S . Bus . Servs . Co . v . Estate of Rolison the Court sided with P & G and determined that Rolison had been provided with reasonable notice and that he failed to take any steps to update or change his designation . The brothers have filed an appeal , but it appears that Losinger stands to inherit the entire balance of the account .
I like to use this real-life case as an illustration to my clients that it is important to address and review beneficiary designations and not to assume that they are complete . There have been instances when a checkup leads to the discovery of a beneficiary not being listed on an account or an old beneficiary , such as a revoked trust the client had many years ago , being listed .
I am sure many of you that are reading this are estate attorneys and advise your clients to make sure beneficiary designations are up to date , but I hope this prompts all of you , regardless of what area of the law you practice , to take a minute and re-evaluate your personal beneficiary designations also . I know as attorneys our lives can be focused on our clients , but it is important to take the time to mitigate these avoidable incidents . �
THE DOCKET - MARCH 2025 | 37