With so much happening in the employee benefits world over the last few months, we bring you Benefits Catch-Up, our catch-up contribution to help you keep up with recent developments. Eversheds Sutherland’s US Employee...more
5/14/2025
/ 401k ,
American Airlines ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Executive Compensation ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Health and Welfare Plans ,
Health Insurance ,
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Verizon
The US Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on April 17, 2025 that could have a lasting impact on retirement plan litigation. The decision in Cunningham v. Cornell University clarifies that when plaintiffs bring...more
From the 2010 outset of its project to extend ERISA fiduciary status broadly to financial intermediaries, including insurance agents, the US Department of Labor (DOL) has consistently relied on the evolution of the private...more
On April 23, 2024, the US Department of Labor (DOL) released its Final Rule 4.0 regarding ERISA fiduciary investment advice, including amended exemptions for conflicted investment advice.
Our initial analysis of the Final...more
5/10/2024
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Final Rules ,
Insurance Industry ,
Investment ,
Investment Adviser ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
PTEs ,
Retirement Plan
With 2023 drawing to a close, it is a good time for employers to consider any actions needed before year-end with respect to their benefit plans. We made a list, and we encourage plan sponsors to check it twice....more
The Department of Labor (DOL) recently advised that a program under which Citigroup Inc. (Citi) subsidizes investment management fees for its employee benefit plans’ diverse investment managers could be implemented without...more
On October 14, 2021, the US Department of Labor (DOL) proposed changes to ERISA regulations that would again shift the analysis of consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in retirement plans...more
In the guise of clarifications relating to criminal convictions and misconduct, the Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed major amendments to Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-14, also known as the QPAM exemption...more
8/11/2022
/ Affiliates ,
Comment Period ,
Corporate Restructuring ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Exemptions ,
Foreign Affiliates ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Proposed Amendments ,
QPAM ,
Real Party in Interest
Since 1996, the US Department of Labor granted more than 1,200 individual exemptions from the ERISA prohibited transaction rules.
One of the distinctive features of ERISA is its prohibition, in ERISA section 406 as a...more
1/5/2022
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Exemptions ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Reinsurance ,
Related Parties
On October 14, 2021, the US Department of Labor (DOL) proposed changes to ERISA regulations that would again shift the analysis of consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in retirement plans...more
In Field Assistance Bulleting 2021-02, published on October 25, 2021, the US Department of Labor announced with respect to its Fiduciary Rule 3.0 that:
..The temporary ERISA enforcement policy for conflicted fiduciary...more
As businesses return to work after Labor Day 2021, a principal focus for companies that serve US retirement plans will be the impending December 20 enforcement date for the Labor Department’s (DOL) latest fiduciary guidance...more
In a report released on May 27, 2021, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) published the results of a 15-month inquiry into the enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA)...more
In a troubling development, the US Department of Labor (DOL) has announced its expectation that it will proceed to propose yet another iteration of investment advice guidance under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act...more
A district court decision in March has added to the sparse authority regarding the status of participant data under ERISA, particularly whether recordkeepers or other providers can use that data to offer additional products...more
On January 12, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a triple shot of guidance related to helping retirement plan fiduciaries meet their obligations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to...more
1/18/2021
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EBSA ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Field Assistance Bulletins ,
Missing Plan Participants ,
New Guidance ,
PBGC ,
Pensions ,
Retirement Plan ,
Safe Harbors
On June 1, 2020, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision holding that participants in a defined benefit pension plan who have been paid all of the monthly pension benefits to which they are entitled lack standing under...more
6/5/2020
/ Article III ,
Breach of Duty ,
Defined Benefit Plans ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Investment Adviser ,
Mismanagement ,
Pensions ,
Plan Participants ,
Retirement Plan ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
Thole v U.S. Bank
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on February 26, 2020 that ERISA plaintiffs do not gain “actual knowledge” of fiduciary misconduct merely by receiving financial disclosures from the plan. The unanimous opinion in Intel Corp....more
3/3/2020
/ Actual or Constructive Knowledge ,
Appeals ,
Breach of Duty ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma ,
Material Disclosures ,
Question of Fact ,
Reaffirmation ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Beneficiaries ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Summary Judgment
On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (the “Appropriations Act”), a comprehensive government funding bill that includes substantial employee benefits-related...more
1/3/2020
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Appropriations Bill ,
Beneficiaries ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Multiemployer Plan ,
Required Minimum Distributions ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Safe Harbors ,
SECURE Act ,
TPAs ,
U.S. Treasury
On October 23, 2019, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) published proposed regulations that would add a new safe harbor for the use of electronic disclosures by retirement plans subject to the Employee Retirement...more
On June 4, 2019, the US Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari of the defendant fiduciaries in Retirement Plans Committee of IBM, et al. v. Larry W. Jander, No. 18-1165. The justices will review the Second...more
6/13/2019
/ 401k ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Failure To Disclose ,
FIfth Third Bancorp v Dudenhoeffer ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Pleading Standards ,
Retirement Plan ,
Stock Drop Litigation
On March 6, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2019-18 (Notice), announcing that it is retracting its previous position that prohibited pension plan sponsors from offering lump-sum cashouts to retirees who...more
There is some debate about the intended scope of Regulation Best Interest (Regulation BI) as proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the case of retirement investors.
Generally, proposed Regulation BI...more
Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce that it has published a paper—“DC Plans in the US and the UK: Lessons From Across the Pond”—which addresses the differences between defined contribution (DC) plans in the US and the...more
2/14/2018
/ 401k ,
Defined Benefit Plans ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Contributions ,
Investment Controls ,
Pensions ,
Retirement Plan ,
Trustees ,
UK
In conjunction with the start of the Supreme Court’s new term, Eversheds Sutherland took a look back at the Court’s work in employee benefit cases since the enactment of ERISA. We found an astonishing 128 decisions, spanning...more
10/23/2017
/ Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employment Tax ,
Income Taxes ,
Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) ,
Military Service Members ,
NLRA ,
SCOTUS ,
Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act