In surprising news for the California county retirement system community, on April 17, 2024, the California Supreme Court granted review of Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Ass’n v. Criminal Justice Attorney’s Ass’n of...more
On March 27, 2024, after nearly a decade of dispute and five years of litigation, the First District Court of Appeal unanimously rejected all claims that a participating employer brought against the Alameda County Employees’...more
UPDATE: On January 18, 2024, the Second DCA responded to requests for publication of its decision discussed in our last eAlert on this topic (below) and certified the decision for publication. This is an important next step...more
On January 4, 2024, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 6, unanimously rejected the first lawsuit challenging a county retirement board’s implementation of the California Supreme Court’s Alameda decision (VCERA v....more
With recent well-publicized data breaches impacting pension systems and their retirees nationally, as well as increased Department of Labor scrutiny surrounding cybersecurity policies and procedures implemented by ERISA...more
10/6/2023
/ 401k ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Pensions ,
Plan Administrators ,
Popular
The constitutionality of California’s felony forfeiture statute, as applied by the Board of Administration of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), survived yet another challenge in September 2023,...more
On September 21, 2023, a federal judge in Texas granted summary judgment in, and thus dismissed, a lawsuit filed by the Attorneys General of 25 states and other interested parties challenging a final rule issued by the U.S....more
9/26/2023
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Pensions ,
Retirement Plan
Congress recently passed the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. Building on the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, SECURE 2.0 attempts to expand retirement plan coverage and increase retirement savings...more
On February 15, 2023, changes to Actuarial Standard of Practice (ASOP) No. 4 will be effective, and defined benefit plans will need to comply with these new rules in all actuarial funding valuations with measurement dates...more
On January 30, 2023, the Fourth District Court of Appeal clarified which sorts of retirement benefit payments do and do not count as a “disability allowance” within the context of the reciprocity rules of the County Employees...more
On November 8, 2021, a decade-plus court battle concerning whether a public pension system and its board of retirement violated their fiduciary duties when making certain actuarial and reserving decisions following the Great...more
On November 24, 2020, the California Supreme Court denied two requests for depublication of the First Appellate District’s decision Marin Assn. of Public Employees v. Marin County Employees’ Retirement Assn. (2016) 2...more
In a landmark decision of a unanimous court, on July 30, 2020, the California Supreme Court issued its second case in two years on the scope of the “California Rule,” Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Assoc. et al., v. Alameda...more
8/4/2020
/ CA Supreme Court ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Deferred Compensation ,
Employee Benefits ,
Equitable Estoppel ,
Pensions ,
Public Employees ,
Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) ,
Public Pension ,
Retirement Plan ,
Settlement Agreements ,
State Constitutions
The United States Supreme Court recently reviewed the federal constitutional standing requirements for members of a private defined-benefit pension plan who alleged that the plan trustees violated their fiduciary duties. ...more
6/11/2020
/ 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
On April 15, 2020, the California Supreme Court scheduled oral argument in the much-anticipated California Supreme Court public retirement case, Alameda County Deputy Sheriff's Association, et al. v. Alameda County Employees'...more
On December 12, 2019, the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District handed down a unanimous decision in Luke v. County of Sonoma, Sonoma County Employees’ Retirement Association, et al., affirming the...more
12/17/2019
/ Appeals ,
CalSTRS ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Pensions ,
Public Employees ,
Public Pension ,
Retirement Plan ,
State and Local Government ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Time-Barred Claims
In a much awaited announcement, on November 8, 2018, the California Supreme Court scheduled oral argument in CalFire Local 2881, et al. v. CalPERS, et al., which is the first of the five pending vested rights cases that are...more
11/12/2018
/ CA Supreme Court ,
CalPERS ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Oral Argument ,
Pensions ,
Public Employees ,
Public Pension ,
Retirement Plan ,
State and Local Government ,
Vested Rights Doctrine
The evolution of vested rights jurisprudence in California is far from over, with the Second District Court of Appeal (“DCA”) stepping into the fray with its June 19, 2018 decision, Hipsher v. Los Angeles County Employees...more
In the latest state appellate decision addressing the constitutionality of the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (“PEPRA”) and other recent pension reform legislation, Division One of the First District...more
3/28/2018
/ Appeals ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employee Benefits ,
Estoppel ,
Judges ,
Pensions ,
Popular ,
Public Employees ,
Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) ,
Public Pension ,
Retirement Plan ,
State and Local Government ,
Vested Benefits
In the latest twist in California’s pending vested rights litigation, parties on all sides of Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. et al v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Assn., et al. (2018) 19 Cal.App.5th 61...more
Due process-based claims have taken center stage in several claims against some California public retirement systems of late. A recent ruling by the Superior Court for the County of Marin, however, held that the Board of...more
On August 17, 2016, Division Two of the First District Court of Appeal issued a unanimous published decision in MAPE et al. v. MCERA, et al. (August 17, 2016, A139610) ___ Cal.App. 4th ___, ___ Cal.Rptr.3d___ [2016 WL...more