You have likely heard of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. But, do you know anything about the agency that manages it? To best understand ERISA, it is important to know the history and structure of the agency that manages it. Pensions have a […]
Pension plans consist of contractual promises made by employers to reward employees for their faithful and devoted service and also serve as a retention incentive to encourage employees to remain with their employers. However, the traditional defined benefit pension plan that promises a monthly lifetime annuity to workers and their spouses has been rapidly disappearing, […]
The nation’s highest court has agreed to hear a case that considers when pension plan participants under ERISA can sue their plan administrators for mismanagement, even years after the alleged misconduct took place. It is the first case the Supreme Court will hear regarding excessive 401(k) fees. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 […]
A recent ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals illustrates that the context of words can make a dramatic difference in the interpretation of a pension plan. In Schane v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union Local 710 Pension Fund, 2014 U.S.App.LEXIS 14118 (7th Cir. July 23), the appeals court established that the word […]
A recent federal court ruling in Michigan outlined the scope of a provision in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that exempts “church plans” from being subject to Employee Retirement Income Security Act funding and reporting requirements. In Overall v. Ascension, 2014 WL 1908428, 2014 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 65418 (E.D.Mich. May 13, 2014), the plaintiff brought a […]
Both the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act have rules that prevent assignments of retirement benefits in order to ensure that retirees actually receive the benefits that they were promised. ERISA flatly states that “each pension plan” must provide that benefits under the plan cannot be “assigned or alienated.” There are […]