PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
What Can A Tax Attorney Do For You? A Podcast With Janathan Allen
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Auto-Portability: A New Way to Keep Retirement Savings Growing
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2022 Year-End Checklist
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Helping Employers Address the Gender Gap in Retirement Savings
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Millennials, Boomers and Retirement Planning
The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cryptocurrency in 401(k) Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
2022 Resolutions: What Healthcare Practices Need To Tackle In the New Year
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cautionary Tales for Preapproved Plan Documents
DOL Clarifies Timing of Lifetime Income Disclosures in Benefit Statements
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Back to the Future: SECURE Act and SECURE Act 2.0
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Payroll Integration for Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2020 Year-End Checklist
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cybersecurity Considerations for Retirement Plan Sponsors
Three Timely Benefits Items Everyone Should Know
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - COVID-19 Edition - Employee Benefits Considerations When Conducting Furloughs and Layoffs
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the fiduciaries of the Home Depot 401(k) plan, who defended against claims that they breached their fiduciary...more
A federal district court recently granted a motion to dismiss claims that defined contribution plan fiduciaries breached their fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence, and violated ERISA’s anti-inurement and prohibited...more
Case Name and Number: Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., et al., No. 4:23-cv-00552 - INTRODUCTION - On June 20, 2024, Judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas (the “court”) denied a motion for summary...more
ESG stands for “environmental, social, and governance.” Though often overlooked, two recent cases — Spence v. American Airlines and Exxon v. Arjuna Capital, LLC — focus on G’s place in the ESG initialism. Here, we break...more
All qualified retirement plans are subject to a myriad of requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is charged with enforcing the...more
They say that April showers bring May flowers, but there were no flowers for ERISA plan sponsors and fiduciaries on May 1 when the Second Circuit held, in a ruling that provoked a vigorous dissenting opinion, that an ERISA...more
A federal district court in Massachusetts dismissed ERISA fiduciary breach and prohibited transaction claims against 401(k) plan fiduciaries, ruling that the prohibited transaction claims were time-barred and the fiduciary...more
Recently, a Texas federal court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss in a lawsuit featuring allegations that an employer's 401(k) plan, which allegedly relied on ESG principles when making investments, violated ERISA. ...more
I grew up in New York City and the City of today isn’t like it was when I grew up. They called it Fun City and not because it was fun unless you thought crime was fun. I remember going to take a Washington D.C. bus (because...more
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") plaintiffs' bar has found a new way to allege that 401(k) plan sponsors have breached their fiduciary duty....more
A Texas federal judge recently permitted an environmental, social, and governance- (ESG) related Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) case filed by an airline pilot against his employer and its benefits plan to...more
A judge in the Eastern District of Wisconsin recently issued a trio of decisions on the same day, which tossed suits alleging 401(k) plan mismanagement because all three complaints contained insufficient pleadings that did...more
A California district court recently denied a motion to dismiss claims that the fiduciaries of a 401(k) plan breached their ERISA fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty by selecting underperforming, high-cost investments...more
The first complaint was filed in what is expected to be a wave of litigation alleging breach of fiduciary duty in selecting and monitoring welfare plan vendors. While the facts of this particular case may make it somewhat...more
In September 2023, former employees of Bed Bath & Beyond sued members of the company’s 401(k) committee, the committee responsible for the prudent management of the company’s 401(k) plan. The former employees allege they lost...more
A recent Ninth Circuit decision has generated considerable controversy amongst employee benefits practitioners by holding that plan fiduciaries engaged in prohibited transactions when they amended the plan’s existing...more
Following a bench trial in a Pennsylvania federal district court in Nunez v. B. Braun Medical, Inc., 401(k) plan fiduciaries defeated a lawsuit alleging that the fiduciaries imprudently managed and paid excessive...more
On August 21, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota largely dismissed—for a second time—a putative ERISA class action challenging “excessive” fees and “poor” performance in a 401(k) plan. Fritton v....more
Two District Courts have reached conflicting decisions on the same day when ruling on substantially similar allegations that plan fiduciaries violated ERISA by paying too much for recordkeeping services, with one court...more
The Fourth Circuit affirmed Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting’s trial victory in a 250,000-member class action suit alleging that Aon breached ERISA’s fiduciary duties. Aon was initially the Lowe’s 401(k) plan’s investment...more
99 Cents Only Stores have come to terms with an excessive fee suit involving their 401(k) plan for about $749,901.01 more than their name. 99 Cents Only was sued for 1) for breach of fiduciary duties of prudence and...more
A third district court has dismissed with prejudice a complaint alleging that defendants breached their fiduciary duties under ERISA by offering 401(k) plan participants the option to invest in BlackRock LifePath Index Target...more
Fiduciaries of retirement plans continue to be plagued by class actions brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) challenging their fiduciary management of investment options and participant fees. A...more
A class action lawsuit brought by former SeaWorld employees that alleged participants in the SWBG LLC 401(k) plan were harmed will continue. The former employees’ arguments sustained the fiduciary breach of the duty of...more
An ERISA action alleging breaches of fiduciary duty recently cleared the pleadings stage in Minnesota district court, narrowly avoiding a complete dismissal. See Schave v. CentraCare Health Sys., No. 22-cv-1555 (WMW/LIB),...more