Keeping Your (Top) Hat On
“Top hat” plans are plans employers maintain for a “select group of management or highly compensated employees.” These plans are exempt from many of ERISA’s protections, including eligibility, vesting, fiduciary responsibility and funding. Thus, they are often used to provide […]
SCOTUS Meant What It Said & Said What It Meant: Dudenhoeffer Imposes Higher Pleading Standards
In a rebuke to the Ninth Circuit, the Supreme Court granted the Amgen defendants’ petition for certiorari, reversed the Ninth Circuit’s judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with its opinion in the district court. The unanimous per […]
Autism Spectrum Disorder and ABA Treatment – New Legal Theories Facing Self-Insured Plans?
Federal law governing mental health benefits is giving rise to a new wave of lawsuits against self-insured ERISA welfare benefit plans. Plan sponsors should carefully consider their current scope of coverage to avoid litigation risk and ensure fair benefits for […]
The Sound of Silence: SCOTUS To Review Rules Governing Vesting of Retiree Health Benefits under CBAs
The Supreme Court has granted review in a case that will resolve a long-standing circuit split concerning the vesting of retiree health care benefits. On May 5th, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case of M&G Polymers USA, LLC […]
Lessons to be Learned From a Flawed 401(k) Fee Study (Part 2)
In our prior post, we detailed some significant deficiencies in the study that Yale Law School Professor Ayers is planning to release and the far less threatening Yale official response. But what steps, if any, should plan administrators take now […]
Lessons to be Learned From a Flawed 401(k) Fee Study (Part 1)
Typically, academics do research and then write about their findings and conclusions. However, as has been reported elsewhere, Professor Ian Ayers, the William K. Townsend Professor at Yale Law School, decided to take his findings and conclusions a step further. […]
Supreme Court to Hear Case on Accrual of Causes of Action Under ERISA
Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted a plan participant’s petition for a writ of certiorari in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Acc. Ins. Co., No. 12-729, 2013 WL 1500233 (Apr. 15, 2013). The Court limited its review to a single question […]
Eighth Circuit Clarifies the Scope of ERISA’s Application to Severance Arrangements
The Eighth Circuit’s recent decision in Dakota, Minn. & E. R.R. Corp. v. Schieffer (Schieffer II), No. 12-1807, 2013 WL 1235235 (8th Cir. Mar. 28, 2013), offers new insight into the circumstances under which severance benefits provided under an executive’s […]
The Moench Presumption is Dead – Long Live the Dudenhoeffer Presumption
On June 25, 2014, a unanimous United States Supreme Court weighed in on the legal standards applicable in stock drop cases in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer. Facts. Beginning in 2007, Fifth Third Bank began experiencing a large number of […]