Under which of the following conditions and to what extent are benefits from a qualified retirement plan included in a decedent’s gross estate?

a) The benefits are included in the gross estate.

b) The benefits are included in the gross estate unless a non-employee spouse’s interest in plan proceeds arising solely because of the application of community property laws is completely excluded from his or her estate if the non-employee-spouse predeceases the plan participant or plan proceeds were in pay status on December 31, 1984 and prior to the enactment of the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, the participant had irrevocably elected a beneficiary designation that would have qualified the plan proceeds for estate tax exclusion.

c) The benefits are never included in the gross estate because spousal interests are not subject to estate tax unless a non-employee spouse’s interest in plan proceeds arising solely because of the application of community property laws is completely excluded from his or her estate if the non- employee-spouse predeceases the plan participant or plan proceeds were not in pay status on December 31, 1984 and prior to the enactment of the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, the participant had irrevocably elected a beneficiary designation that would have qualified the plan proceeds for estate tax exclusion.

d) All of the above.