Click here for a printer-friendly version. For decades IRS regulations and guidance have allowed employers with qualified 401(k) plans wide discretion to decide how to use plan account forfeituresForfeitures may include, for example, non-vested employer contributions in a former [...]
In the last several years, courts have grappled with ERISA plan terms that require participants to arbitrate their claims on an individual basis. Recently, the 10th Circuit invalidated a plan’s arbitration term in Harrison v. Envision Management Holding because it would have restricted the statutory ERISA remedies participants were otherwise entitled to seek.
Click here for a printer-friendly version. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, and in June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that this includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender [...]
Click here for a printer-friendly version. In Spring 2021, the DOL issued guidance to plans, recordkeepers, and participants on cybersecurity best practices to safeguard plan assets and personal information. Since then, the DOL has begun auditing plans’ cybersecurity practices [...]
Updated: December 2019 A recent Ninth Circuit decision has given plan sponsors a powerful new tool to limit plan-wide relief for fiduciary breach claims. Typically, plan participants can bring a claim in court for breach of [...]
Background Congress created a statutory framework that encourages employee ownership of company stock through retirement plans-- including tax incentives, special dividend and loan provisions, and an exemption from ERISA’s duty to diversify plan assets. Beginning in [...]
Background It is not uncommon for retirement plans holding employer stock to incorporate in summary plan descriptions, by reference, stock filings made under securities law. This practice satisfies certain securities law disclosure requirements. Recent case law [...]
Several courts have recently held that fiduciaries breached their duties with respect to fees paid from plan investments.See, e.g., Tussey v. ABB, Inc., 2012 WL 1113291 (W.D. Mo. 2012). The DOL also occasionally submits briefs at the [...]
On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in United States v. Windsor, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. Background DOMA was signed into law in 1996. Section 2 allows states [...]
Many ERISA health plans will advance payment of a participant's accident-related claims if the participant agrees to reimburse the plan out of any third-party settlement (for example, car insurance proceeds). Federal courts have generally supported a [...]