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
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
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 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
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
In 2012, the Department of Labor (DOL) continued a fairly active program of issuing individual exemptions from the prohibited transaction rules of ERISA. These rules generally prohibit, among other things:
- Sale and...more