The consensus in the legal community, and I don’t think it is just because they are looking hopefully for a new flow of work, has for awhile now been that fund investment losses resulting from exposure to the subprime mortgage mess will eventually generate substantial ERISA related litigation. There are plenty of avenues for these
401(k) Plans
ERISA, Investment Strategies and the Duty to Investigate
By Stephen Rosenberg on
ERISA litigation, particularly in the area of retirement benefits, is one of those areas of the law that can be particularly complicated because both the governing body of law and the underlying fact pattern to which it is applied can be tremendously complex. Take, for instance, the example of disputes over whether the fiduciaries of…
Sex, Lies and 401(k) Plans?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans
Well, that is probably overselling this post, but we couldn’t resist the play on the title of the much hyped, much overrated 1989 movie. Regardless, here is an interesting story, out of the soap opera meets 401(k) genre, concerning questions that have arisen over the administration of a prominent law firm’s 401(k) plan…
Number of Suits + Questionable Practices = X
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I have talked, certainly more than once, about the fact that the law governing fiduciary obligations in the realm of retirement plans is evolving, and most recently I commented on how it looks as though the Supreme Court is poised to weigh in on the direction of this evolution in the case law. Some of…
More on Whether Socially Conscious Investing Is a Breach of Fiduciary Duty
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I have raised before the question of whether so-called socially conscious investing would be a breach of fiduciary duty if undertaken by a pension plan or 401(k) fiduciary. The National Law Journal has a neat opinion piece by law professor Edward Zelinsky right now to the effect that it would be. Here’s a link…
Reinsurance and LaRue, All in the Same Post
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Instead of posting twice in the same morning, I am going to try to address two distinct substantive issues, one involving reinsurance and the other ERISA, all in the same post, hopefully without turning this post into some sort of Frankenstein monster combination of topics that instead should have been kept entirely separate.
On the…
Some Thoughts on Behavioral Economics, 401(k) Plan Architecture and the Potential Liabilities of Fiduciaries
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
I have blogged before about behavioral economics, and the question of whether how we structure retirement investment choices will affect whether plan participants successfully save for retirement. Two recent articles really drive home this point. In the first one, “Choice Architecture and Retirement Savings Plans,” the authors posit that the design of…
More Education is Always Better than Less: American Conference Institute’s Upcoming Seminar on 401(k) Risks
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that my goal for the week was to move rapidly through several items that had caught my attention over the last week or so, and that I wanted to pass on to readers of this blog. I thought the next one I would mention is this conference in New York…
401(k) Plans and Increasing Liability Risks for Fiduciaries
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Coming off the holiday weekend, I have a long list of items I want to pass on or talk about. I will try to put up as many as I can over the next few posts, to work through the backlog. I thought I would start with this one, because it ties two of the…
Another View on Whether a Cashed Out 401(k) Participant Has Standing to Sue for Losses Under ERISA
Judge Tauro, of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, has weighed in lately on some of the more cutting edge and currently unsettled issues in ERISA litigation, such as the impact of ERISA preemption on the powers of a state agency. This week, he ventured into the now hot topic…