Egelhoff v. Egelhoff (2001) Definition

A U.S. Supreme Court case where the Court ruled that a woman named as the beneficiary of her former husband's 401(k) plan was entitled to inherit the money in the plan, even though Washington state law said that their divorce automatically revoked her right to inherit.

The Supremacy Clause (U.S. Const., art. VI, cl. 2) provides that the federal Constitution and federal laws are the "supreme Law of the Land," meaning they take priority over conflicting state laws. Because a 401(k) plan is controlled by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and because Washington law conflicted with ERISA, the Court found that federal law was controlling.