In re Marriage of Winter

Husband, a retired public school teacher, began receiving pension payments in 1985. Judgment of dissolution in 2005 awarded entire marital portion of pension to wife via QILDRO. Court properly found that wife failed to meet definition of a surviving spouse under Pension Code, and thus surviving spouse benefit is not subject to division as marital property. Pension Code restricts receipt of benefit only to a surviving spouse. Thus, survivor benefits belonged to neither husband nor wife, but to hypothetical and undetermined "surviving spouse" defined by Pension Code, and thus, survivor benefits are not marital property as defined by Marriage Act. (LAMPKIN and GORDON, concurring.)