I understand that if a hardship or in-service distribution is made in a plan that contains joint and survivor/single life annuities as the normal form of benefit under the Plan, that the participant must elect the distribution in writing and the spouse's written consent to the distribution must be obtained. In getting these consents, is a plan required to also give the J&S/Single life annuity notices?

Any comments on this? Most hardship forms that I have seen for 401(k) Plans that are subject to QJSA rules have a fairly cursory spousal consent section of no more than one or two lines.

Is it the practice to go ahead and send the whole QJSA notice package with such a request for a hardship distribution explaining the QJSA provisions, all optional forms of benefits under the plan and their relative values and the right to 30 days to consider etc?