Estate planning at Newport

Probably not, and this is the structural difference between a nonqualified plan and a 401(k). A 401(k)'s assets sit in a plan trust that is legally separate from the employer and shielded from the employer's creditors. An NQDC balance is not an account the employee owns — it is an unsecured promise from the employer to pay later. Even when a plan is informally funded through a rabbi trust, those assets remain reachable by the employer's general creditors in insolvency; that exposure is what preserves the tax deferral in the first place. A beneficiary of an NQDC plan whose sponsor is in bankruptcy is, in substance, a general unsecured creditor of the company. If you are settling an estate that includes a Newport-administered NQDC benefit and the employer is in distress, get the plan document and the trust arrangement from the employer, contact 800-230-3950, and talk to a licensed attorney before treating the balance as a collectible estate asset.