Apparently there is something in the air these days about socially responsible investing and the fiduciary obligations of pension fiduciaries. I discussed here, just the other day, the argument that it is not a fiduciary breach to utilize a particular social agenda in investing and the litigation implications of that approach. Susan Mangiero has more
Criminal Restitution, Alienation of Retirement Benefits and the Supreme Court
We return, as promised, to America today, to two particular, but certainly not unique, American obsessions, the Supreme Court and criminals. As discussed here and here, the Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal presenting the question of whether pension and retirement benefits governed by ERISA can be attached in the criminal
On Blogging and Canadian Insurance Coverage Law
I just stumbled, metaphorically speaking, across this excellent blog on Canadian insurance law, and thought I would pass it along. I guess that makes this Canadian law day here on the blog (take a look at the last post). Maybe tomorrow we will go back to America.
Socially Responsible Investing and Fiduciary Duties
Here’s a little twist on an issue we have often discussed on this blog, namely the fiduciary obligations of plan sponsors and other fiduciaries. To what extent does the fiduciary obligation to properly manage and invest fund assets leave room to consider social, environmental or political agendas in selecting investments? This article, by Benjamin
The Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act and the Purposes of Preemption
I have been meaning to come back to some issues concerning the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act, the state’s potentially groundbreaking attempt to combine individual, employer and government roles to provide health insurance coverage for most of the Commonwealth’s uninsured, and now seems like a good time to do so, with its effective date coming
The First Circuit on Professional Liability Insurance
What SCOTUSBLOG does for the Supreme Court – maintaining a steady and running review of goings on at the high court – Appellate Law and Practice does for the First Circuit, only with a little more humor and quirkiness than SCOTUSBLOG employs. A regular check of Appellate Law and Practice ensures that you don’t miss
Supreme Court Rules on Beck v Pace
I don’t generally like to play first to post, and would rather wait to see what I can add to the discussion of any particular issue before posting on a breaking story. But as I have been watching and waiting for the Supreme Court’s opinion in the ERISA fiduciary duty case of Beck v. Pace
More on Amaranth and Fiduciaries’ Due Diligence Obligations
In a post on Friday, I discussed how a large pension fund’s large losses from a hedge fund investment had given rise to litigation between the pension and the hedge fund, as discussed in this post in the WSJ Law Blog, and how it further raised the question of whether the pension plan’s fiduciaries might
A Thought About Litigation Against Fiduciaries For Hedge Fund Losses
We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the due diligence obligations of fiduciaries and other advisors to pensions, 401(k) plans and the like when it comes to investment choices. A story yesterday offers the opportunity for a little thought experiment demonstrating why it matters, and why anything less than stringent oversight and investigation of
Patenting Tax and ERISA Strategies
There’s a hot topic of discussion out there all of a sudden – I think originally triggered by this post a few weeks back by Suzanne Wynn – concerning whether ERISA strategies should be able to be patented. The discussion, thanks to a detailed look at the issue in this week’s issue of the BNA