Some of you hopefully saw my recommendation the other day concerning this morning’s webinar on 401(k) plan fees and the attendant obligations of fiduciaries. The webinar discussed in detail the obligations of plan sponsors and other fiduciaries with regard to 401(k) plans and their accompanying fees. On the key issue of how to avoid incurring liability for breach of
Attorney’s Fee Awards, and the Duty to Indemnify
I have written before about the American Rule – which requires parties to a lawsuit, in the absence of a fee shifting statute or contractual agreement, to pay their own legal fees – and the exception under Massachusetts law that runs in favor of insureds who prevail in coverage cases against their insurers. The Supreme
Investment Management Fees, and Contract Geeks
Two things to chew on over the holiday, other than the turducken (I have always wanted to use that word in a sentence), one to know about before it occurs, the other to note before it disappears. I guess I could take that dichotomy a little further, and note that one concerns the first half
Insolvency Funds and Why the Rich Should Know Better
Massachusetts, like most and I would assume all states, has a number of legislatively created entities that participate in or affect the insurance market in one way or another, including an insolvency fund intended to cover losses underwritten by, yes, insolvent insurers.
The soon to be outgoing governor of the Commonwealth has now signed legislation
Underwriting, Math and the Future of Insurance
Information, and the ability to manage it in ever more clever and analytical ways, is fundamentally changing industry after industry. This article details the impact that ever more sophisticated management of ever more extensive information is currently having, and will in the future have, on the insurance industry. The conclusion? Those insurers that can best
Mandated Health Benefits and Preemption in San Francisco
Here is a neat post about the latest skirmish over state or local attempts to mandate health benefits and whether doing so is preempted by ERISA, this time in San Francisco, where an organization representing restaurant owners is challenging a city ordinance mandating the provision of health benefits. This is echoes of the Maryland Fair
Recoupments and Set Offs Under ERISA Plans
Here’s a very interesting decision, Northcutt v. General Motors Hourly-Rate Employees Pension Plan, out of the 7th Circuit, upholding the right of administrators to rely on recoupment language in a plan to set off a lump sum social security payment received by a beneficiary against on-going payment obligations to that beneficiary that would otherwise
The Attorney-Client Privilege in Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith Lawsuits
Like all of you, I am sure, I receive almost daily pitches in my in-box for seminars, podcasts, books and publications that promise to educate me on various topics that the pitchers have decided I must be interested in. Of course, these may be the same marketing wizards who send me twenty pitches a day
Viruses, Asbestos and Exclusions
I am fascinated by this new exclusion that is being drafted and for which approval is being sought, which seeks to exclude claims arising from viruses – not the computer kind, but things like avian flu. I understand the intent, but for any of you who, like I, have been at the insurance coverage business
Insurance Fraud and Securities Litigation
I don’t think I can recommend a better read for a Friday afternoon than this article on the apparently questionable rise and apparently imminent fall of the securities litigation powerhouse Milberg Weiss. You couldn’t make this stuff up, and I don’t think John Grisham or anyone else could have invented the panoply of players, and