Well, my trial’s still ongoing, and I find myself short of time to really comment in any detail on the latest details in the always percolating and never quiet world of ERISA and insurance law. However, I do still find time to continue my own reading on the subject, and so I am able to
Retirement Benefits
Defined Benefit, Defined Contribution, and The Psychological Effect on Litigants
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Here is a very neat and interesting paper contrasting defined benefit plans – i.e. pensions – with defined contribution plans – i.e. 401(k) plans – and addressing, in particular: (1) the decline in the former in the workplace and replacement by the latter; and (2) the problems engendered by that change. In essence, the authors…
Introducing Pension Governance LLC
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I have talked before about my tendency to veer from my appointed rounds when something more interesting appears on the horizon than that which I had planned to work or post on, and today is another one of those days. I came in full of grand hopes to discuss insurance coverage for intellectual property risks…
Merger and Anti-Cutback Provisions of ERISA, and a Handy Rule of Thumb
By Stephen Rosenberg on
This case, out of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, provides a nice little rule of thumb for amending, merging or otherwise altering retirement benefit plans – namely, that it makes it hard to get sued and lose if you make the changes in a way that avoids altering the actual benefit…
Novak and the National Law Journal
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I guess this is me and the media week here at the blog. There is an excellent story in the National Law Journal this week on the Novak decision out of the Ninth Circuit, which I talked about here, in which the court allowed attachment of ERISA governed retirement benefits as part of criminal…
Insurance Coverage for Pension Plan Fiduciaries
There is an interesting interrelationship between the two primary subjects of this blog, ERISA litigation and insurance coverage, and one that I had not really thought much about until Rick Shoff, who works with Mike Pratico over at CapTrust Financial Advisors, raised it in a conversation recently. As I have mentioned in the past,…
Congressional Hearings on 401(k) Plan Fees and What They Mean for Plan Fiduciaries
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Wow. Don’t think the heat is on for company 401(k) sponsors and other fiduciaries of employee retirement benefit plans who may not have done enough benchmarking and due diligence to make sure that mutual fund and advisor fees are as low as possible? Then take a look at this article out of the Washington Post…
What Happens When Reimbursement of Overpaid Benefits Is Equitable for Purposes of ERISA, but Nonetheless Inequitable?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Here is an interesting little twist on the common scenario of a plan overpaying retirement benefits and then seeking reimbursement, as allowed under the plan’s terms, of the overpayment from the plan beneficiary. Normally, these cases are focused on whether the reimbursement qualifies as equitable relief that the fiduciary is allowed to pursue. In this…
Restitution, Anti-Alienation and ERISA
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Although I am diligent about covering in this blog ERISA decisions coming out of the courts in the First Circuit, I also keep an eye on ERISA decisions elsewhere in the country and discuss them when there is something particularly interesting about them that catches my eye. The Ninth Circuit has just done exactly that,…
Fiduciary Advisors, Due Diligence, and Avoiding Fiduciary Liability
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Michael Pratico, a fiduciary advisor to retirement plans throughout New England for Captrust Financial Advisors, and one of my favorite touchstones for real world – i.e. non-lawyer – information about the actual operation of retirement benefit plans, pointed out an interesting conundrum to me the other day concerning the operations of retirement plans and…