Here’s an interesting, although at a minimum somewhat overstated, diatribe against 401(k) plans from Forbes, in which the author complains about four specific risks to participants: greater investment risk than would exist investing outside of such a plan; problems with employer or vendor record keeping and management; the possibility of employer failure; and a lack
You Say Potato, I Say Potahto: When Plan Documents and SPDs Speak Inconsistently
Bravo. In the context of discussing the Supreme Court’s grant of cert to a case presenting the question of how to resolve conflicts between plan terms and summary plan descriptions, the authors of this client alert, Lisa Brogan and Joseph LaFramboise at Baker & McKenzie, provide, in only four pages, a succinct yet comprehensive
Doubling Down: Protecting the Director or Officer Against the Unknown and Unforeseen
Here’s a little story that rung an old bell for me, and provides an object lesson on a point I have made in the past in various forums concerning the protections against liability that need to be sought by officers and directors. The story concerns a decision out of the Tenth Circuit finding that a
An Emerging Consensus on Arbitrating Complex Commercial Disputes?
Well, I have written extensively on my skepticism about commercial arbitration as a tool for solving commercial disputes, and my belief that the courtroom is a better forum for most complex cases. It would take a lot of links to cover my past discussion of the pros and cons of this type of dispute resolution
An Unfortunately Timely Topic: When Severance Programs are ERISA Plans
Nothing shows up in my practice any more frequently, particularly in this economy and over the last couple of years, than severance packages, and the question of whether a particular severance package program is governed by ERISA. Roy Hoskins, on the ERISABoard.com site, reviews this issue, and its application by the District of Maine under
Interesting Developments in the Insurance Coverage World
I thought I would pass on two interesting insurance coverage stories, with some thoughts on each. The first is this one here, about the New Jersey Supreme Court finding that an insurer that loses an insurance coverage action can be ordered to pay attorney’s fees incurred by the insured in a separate but related
Pay Now and Later: High Plan Fees Pose an Increasing Risk of Fiduciary Exposure
Chip, chip, chip. No, that’s not the sound of the polar ice caps shedding ice, although I suppose it could well be. It’s the sound of the Fortress Europa that some of the more optimistic lawyers for 401(k) plans thought was being enacted against excessive fee claims – in the wake of cases such
Breach of Fiduciary Duty Litigation: When the Best Defense is a Good Offense
Anyone who writes anything for a long time, as I have this blog, cannot help but end up with certain recurring themes. When it comes to the management of 401(k) and similar plans, one of those themes has been the importance of compliance and a careful decision making process by fiduciaries, an idea borne out
Small Plans Don’t Always Have Small Problems
This is an interesting small piece out of Reish and Reicher highlighting the fact that smaller plans, with relatively small asset pools, face many of the same risks and problems that are faced by the large plan sponsors involved in the bold face cases that show up on a daily basis in the media. To
Could the Deepwater Horizon Alter the Trajectory of ERISA Stock Drop Litigation?
BP has a giant employee savings plan, making it a prime target for stock drop type ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims in light of the Deepwater Horizon leak, as I mentioned here in this post, and the lawsuits and the investigations that will eventually result in lawsuits are coming out of the woodwork