Editor's Overview -
Happy New Year! Because 401(k) plans play an increasingly prominent role as an employee's principal retirement investment vehicle, fiduciaries overseeing those plans face increased pressure to see...more
1/22/2016
/ 401k ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Data Security ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Excessive Fees ,
Free Identity Theft Protection ,
IRS ,
Mootness ,
Plan Administrators ,
SCOTUS ,
Spouses ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
Tibble v Edison Int ,
US v Windsor
Following the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in U.S. v. Windsor (in which the Court held that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) was unconstitutional), one of the questions facing sponsors of...more
Editor's Overview -
In this month's newsletter, we focus on the recent wave of guidance and case law related to the Affordable Care Act. We also discuss IRS Notice 2015-86, which provides guidance on the application of...more
1/4/2016
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Automatic Enrollment ,
Burwell v Hobby Lobby ,
Cadillac Tax ,
Contraceptive Coverage Mandate ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Good Faith ,
Health and Welfare Plans ,
HRA ,
IRS ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
PBGC ,
Preventive Health Care ,
Qualified Retirement Plans ,
SCOTUS ,
US v Windsor ,
Wellness Programs
Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2015-86, providing guidance on the application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges to qualified retirement plans and health and welfare...more
Editor's Overview -
This month we take a look at how the lower courts have been dealing with claims for retiree health benefits after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, 135 S. Ct. 926...more
12/1/2015
/ Ambiguous ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
IRS ,
M&G Polymers v Tackett ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Retirement Plan ,
SCOTUS ,
Spouses ,
Vesting ,
Wellness Programs
On October 21, 2015, the IRS issued proposed regulations to clarify the treatment of same-sex spouses for federal tax purposes. By way of background, in 2013, the United States Supreme Court held in United States v. Windsor...more
10/27/2015
/ DOMA ,
Due Process ,
Equal Protection ,
Federal Taxes ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
IRS ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Popular ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
SCOTUS ,
Spouses ,
US v Windsor
Editor's Overview -
This month's article by Lindsey Chopin discusses Affordable Care Act ("ACA") litigation. Just five years old, the Supreme Court has considered issues related to the ACA numerous times. Two of those...more
7/29/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Burwell v Hobby Lobby ,
Chapter 11 ,
Class Certification ,
Clawbacks ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Contraceptive Coverage Mandate ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Due Process ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Protection ,
Executive Compensation ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
General Motors ,
Incentive Compensation ,
Individual Mandate ,
IRS ,
King v Burwell ,
Loss Causation ,
Medicaid Expansion ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Public Health Service Act ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
State Health Insurance Exchanges ,
UAW ,
Venue
Editor's Overview -
In this month's newsletter, Anthony Cacace analyzes the heavily anticipated Supreme Court ruling in Tibble v. Edison Intl., 135 S. Ct. 1823 (2015), where the Court held that ERISA's fiduciary duty of...more
6/26/2015
/ 401k ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Determination Letter ,
Due Diligence ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Duty to Monitor ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Funds ,
Investment Management ,
IRS ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Retirement Plan ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 409A ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Stock Drop Litigation ,
Tibble v Edison Int ,
Vesting
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, holding that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses require states to allow same-sex marriage and to...more
6/26/2015
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
DOMA ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family Status Discrimination ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Income Taxes ,
Marriage Equality ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
Same-Sex Marriage Bans ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Spouses ,
US v Windsor
The IRS has informally stated that it is intending to make some significant changes to the Determination Letter program, and is even considering eliminating the program for individually designed retirement plans (other than...more
The Supreme Court cast a ray of sunlight for employers by rejecting the use of a problematic inference in adjudicating claims for retiree benefits brought pursuant to collective bargaining agreements. For many years, the...more
It was announced today that the U.S. Supreme Court will consider two important questions relating to same-sex marriage–whether states are required to allow same-sex marriages within their jurisdictions, and whether states are...more
Effective January 1, 2015, group health plans and insurers are no longer required to issue a certificate of creditable coverage (“HIPAA Certificate”) to individuals who lost group health plan coverage. As a reminder, HIPAA...more
The IRS announced yesterday that the maximum annual employee contribution to a health care flexible spending account plan is increasing by $50 to $2,550 for 2015 (up from the $2,500 limit that has applied since 2013)....more
Editor's Overview -
This month's newsletter focuses on repayment of pension plan overpayments. Our issue discusses pension plan overpayments to participants, a plan administrator's duties to seek repayment, corrections...more
On June 27, 2014, the IRS published a letter outlining the steps taxpayers should take in order to obtain a refund for taxes paid on the value of employer-sponsored health coverage provided to an employee’s same-sex spouse....more
As was expected, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued a proposed regulation changing the definition of “spouse” for FMLA purposes in order to protect the FMLA rights of employees with same-sex spouses.
The proposed...more
Editor's Overview -
This month our authors explore two important areas of ERISA's fiduciary duties applicable to single employer and multiemployer plans. First, Neal Schelberg and Aaron Feuer comment on a growing trend...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in US v. Windsor, the requirement that an ERISA health plan provide health coverage for same-sex spouses has often hinged on whether an employee benefit plan was insured or...more
Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in U.S. v. Windsor) that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional, the IRS announced that same-sex marriages will be recognized for federal tax...more
This month we look at part three of our three part series on Class Actions. In part three, Robert Rachal and M. Todd Mobley address the role of experts in class certification post Wal-Mart and Comcast and how to use and...more
1/21/2014
/ Blue Cross ,
Burden of Proof ,
Cafeteria Plans ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Comcast ,
Contraceptive Coverage Mandate ,
Daubert Standards ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
FRCP 23 ,
General Motors ,
Health Savings Accounts ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Predominance Requirement ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
SCOTUS ,
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) ,
Wal-Mart
Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Windsor decision that repealed Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), same-sex spouses were not recognized as spouses for federal tax and benefits purposes. In the immediate...more
12/23/2013
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Cafeteria Plans ,
Dependent Care ,
DOMA ,
FSA ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
Healthcare ,
HSA ,
IRS ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
US v Windsor
The Ninth Circuit Judicial Council, an administrative body that reviews decisions of the court’s chief judge, recently weighed in on an issue involving same-sex domestic partner health benefits in the post-Windsor world. The...more
This month we return to the age-old question – "What makes someone a fiduciary?" As Nicole Eichberger explains, the Seventh Circuit reminded us that the meaning of a "functional fiduciary" depends on exercise/conduct in...more
A few weeks after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stated that it will apply a “place of celebration” rule in recognizing same-sex spouses for purposes of the Internal Revenue Code (including with respect to employee...more