I was going to post on something else today – namely the scope of contractual obligation clauses in insurance policies – but my Google Alert pulled in something else that I wanted to pass along first instead, namely, this post by Paul Secunda at Marquette on an amicus brief filed by several law professors asking
Fiduciaries
Notes on Hecker v Deere
By Stephen Rosenberg on
The Seventh Circuit’s opinion in Hecker v Deere is interesting in a number of ways, and on a number of levels. I won’t detail the facts of the case in depth here, but the case turns on the question of the plan sponsor’s and service providers’ potential fiduciary liability for allegedly high fees in the…
Shining a BrightScope on Heckler v. John Deere
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Still parceling out items of interest that have stacked up on my desk in the last week or so. Among the things I still haven’t gotten to, I have to admit, is a careful reading of the Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Heckler v John Deere, but I will, shortly. In the meantime, though…
Do People Who Are Told the Truth Sue?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
I love this story. A couple of weeks ago I blogged about BrightScope’s launch, and pointed out my view that more information generally means less litigation. I learned thereafter that some think that is a counter-intuitive thought; presumably, people who believe that think that if you cover up problems and don’t let people…
Bunch v. W.R. Grace: What a Breach of Fiduciary Duty Doesn’t Look Like
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
I cannot do better by anybody interested in fiduciary obligations under ERISA than to recommend to you the First Circuit’s decision the other day in Bunch v. W.R. Grace & Co.. For those of you not familiar with the lower court proceedings in that case, what was at issue is whether it was…
Talkin’ ERISA Litigation Trends
I will be presenting a seminar next week, on Wednesday January 14th, to the ASPPA Benefits Council of New England, entitled “ERISA Litigation: An Update from the Front Lines.” After three full days of outlining my talk, I now actually have a pretty good idea of what I am going to say; the talk will…
More Evidence that Including Company Stock in a Retirement Plan May Not Be Worth the Litigation Risk
By Stephen Rosenberg on
A few months back, I discussed the broad conception of damages in stock drop type cases articulated in the case of Bendaoud, which essentially found that damages exist if the participant could have done better in an alternative investment option. This concept makes it fairly easy to construct a damages theory in 401(k) and…
On Fiduciary Bonds and Fiduciary Insurance
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Fiduciaries
Well, I suppose nothing could be located more squarely at the intersection of the two topics in this blog’s title than the difference between fiduciary liability insurance (which lets fiduciaries sleep at night) and fiduciary bonds (which protects a plan’s assets, rather than insuring the fiduciaries themselves). Scott Simmonds, who consults, writes and blogs on…
The Tribune Bankruptcy and Breach of Fiduciary Duty Litigation Over its ESOP
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Fiduciaries
I had a whole line of things I was planning to blog on, but events keep overtaking them. Today, that is the story of the Tribune bankruptcy, and its effect, detailed here, on the Tribune ESOP. We have all been watching the booming industry in filing ERISA breach of fiduciary duty cases based on…
On the Scope of the Attorney Client Privilege In ERISA Litigation
By Stephen Rosenberg on
This really isn’t an instance of logrolling (or blogrolling, as the case may be), I promise, even though Roy Harmon’s post that I am passing along here refers to me and my electronic discovery post a few times; the subject of Roy’s post got my attention and led me to read it long before I…