Boston ERISA Law Blog

I am kind of fond of this recent disability benefits case out of the United States District Court for the District of Maine for one particular reason, namely its discussion of functional fiduciaries, and thought I would pass it along as a result. Confronted with the question of whether Metropolitan Life, the administrator, was a fiduciary or possessed fiduciary authority with regard to benefit determinations, the court explained that although Metropolitan Life was not the Plan Administrator or a "named fiduciary" within the meaning of ERISA, the plan language clearly gave it authority that would render it a fiduciary. While there is nothing particularly out of the usual or fascinating about that finding, I liked the court’s further citation of the First Circuit’s recognition of the doctrine of functional fiduciaries as further support for its finding. The court noted that: 

The First Circuit has recognized that ERISA's fiduciary duty provisions extend to "functional fiduciaries--persons who act as fiduciaries (though not explicitly denominated as such) by performing at least one of the several enumerated functions with respect to a plan." Beddall v. State Street Bank and Trust Co., 137 F.3d 12, 18 (1st Cir. 1998). "The key determinant of whether a person qualifies as a functional fiduciary is whether that person exercises discretionary authority in respect to, or meaningful control over, an ERISA plan, its administration, or its assets." Id.

In the disability benefits field, where many of the insurers and administrators are highly experienced, plan documents are usually clear as to who is playing what fiduciary role and who has discretionary authority, but in other cases, such as smaller self-managed plans or involving smaller third party administrators, the controlling plan documents often do not address the role of every person or service provider involved in the operation of the plan. In those cases, the functional fiduciary analysis can be quite handy in understanding the role of the players involved in the administration of the plan, and the possible liabilities of each as well.