Law Brief: Alexis Gruttadauria and Rich Schoenstein Discuss Why You Need an Estate Plan
When choosing a beneficiary for a retirement plan, it is important to understand how your spouse will be treated under the plan. Surviving spouses are treated differently under 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts...more
Synopsis: A recent 4th Circuit decision reiterates the importance of aligning a plan fiduciary’s administrative claim and appeal review process with the standards for a “full and fair review” under U.S. Department of Labor...more
The Ninth Circuit concluded that a plan fiduciary abused its discretion in denying survival benefits to a pension plan participant’s domestic partner. In so ruling, the Court explained that the plan’s choice of law provisions...more
In an unpublished decision dated May 16, 2019, the Ninth Circuit held that a plan administrator abused its discretion by denying surviving spouse benefits under an ERISA retirement benefit plan to a participant’s domestic...more
• In Laborers' Pension Fund v. Miscevic, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the Illinois slayer statute is one state statute that is not pre-empted by ERISA. A slayer statute is a law that prevents an...more
On February 7, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky ordered that the former President of the University of the Cumberlands, Dr. James Taylor, may proceed on his claims that the University failed...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recognized the retroactive application of United States v. Windsor. In Schuett v. FedEx Corporation, plaintiff and her long-time...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