THE WONDER YEARS WEBINAR
THE WAY WE WERE
Mad Dogs and Panameños!
It's (Not) Too Late, Baby!
FATHER KNOWS BEST
THE WONDER YEARS - Rediscovering the Magic of Split Dollar Life Insurance
Buy-Sell Agreements and Their Place in an Asset Protection Plan
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Personal Estate Planning
Life Policy Lapse Shortly Before Insured’s Death - In Simon v. USAA Life Insurance Co. (Mar. 29, 2024), the insurer denied death benefits under a term life insurance policy, which had lapsed for nonpayment of premium two...more
This month’s Friday Five explores recent decisions that range from the effect on disability benefits when medical records are not provided after two appeals, to a case that examines how an award of death benefits is...more
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Fulkerson v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America that the beneficiary of an ERISA-covered life insurance policy was not entitled to accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D)...more
Section 405 of the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) provides for joint liability for co-fiduciaries of a pension, health or welfare benefit plan. ...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to: (1) whether a plaintiff may be entitled to AD&D benefits when their spouse died of an illegal drug overdose; (2) when a plaintiff can supplement the administrative record...more
On October 19, 2021, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a widow supplemental group life insurance benefits of $300,000 upon her husband’s death even though he had paid the premiums for the coverage for four years...more
In Duncan v. Minnesota Life Ins. Co., 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 4069 (6th Cir. Feb. 10, 2021), the Sixth Circuit held that an insurer properly denied accidental death benefits on the grounds that a patient's leukemia caused the...more
Hinshaw's LHD/ERISA Advisor remains committed to bringing you recent legal developments that may guide your life, health, and disability litigation strategy and claims decisions....more
In Estate of Maurice v. Life Ins. Co. of N. Am., 792 Fed. Appx. 499 (9th Cir. Cal. Feb. 5, 2020), the Ninth Circuit held that coverage was excluded under an ERISA-governed disability plan ("Plan"), because the evidence in the...more
In Arruda v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co., 951 F.3d 12, 13 (1st Cir. 2020), the First Circuit held that a claims administrator's decision to deny accidental death and dismemberment benefits was not an abuse of discretion where...more
Second Circuit Affirms Decision Rejecting ERISA Claims for Retiree Health Benefits The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed a district court’s decision dismissing claims under the Employee Retirement...more
A federal district court in Ohio recently attempted to shed some light on when internal communications between an ERISA plan administrator and its in-house counsel are discoverable and when they are protected by the...more
An employer learned the full cost of ambiguity when a Connecticut federal district court agreed with an employee’s widow that the word “maximum” was ambiguous in the company’s life insurance plan, thus making the widow...more
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed a U.S. District Court's application of deferential standard to the review of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) administrator's decision based on broad...more
The stories of an employer and a long-term disability insurer and claims fiduciary for an ERISA plan, defendants in two recent cases, ring so true. In the first case, the insurer was designated as claims fiduciary for an...more
So you have an estate plan? Good for you. You funded it? Even better. But have you updated it and your will in the last year? If you haven’t, your loved ones or favorite charities may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Your...more
On July 2, 2014, a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that Unum Life Insurance Company’s practice of using Retained Asset Accounts (RAAs) to pay death benefits claims on group...more
Obergefell v. Kasich and Cozen O’Connor v. Tobits may reflect a growing trend of courts and other bodies to recognize same-sex marriages validly celebrated elsewhere even if the couple’s current state of residence does not...more
In the first reported ERISA decision post-Windsor, the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held (in Cozen O’Connor, P.C. v. Jennifer Tobits) that a same-sex spouse is to be treated as the decedent’s...more
Following on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Windsor, a federal district court in Pennsylvania recently held that the same-sex spouse of a deceased employee is entitled to receive death benefits under the...more