This article is for employers who sponsor defined benefit plans that are subject to Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) coverage. Those employers pay premiums to the PBGC and also are required to report certain events to the PBGC. Some events
Benefit Notes
Understanding Employee Benefits
Benefit Notes, published by Stinson LLP, focuses on legal developments and compliance issues related to employee benefit plans and retirement plans. The blog covers topics such as annual limits and cost-of-living adjustments for qualified retirement plans, risk management in retirement plan litigation, legislative changes affecting health savings accounts and flexible spending arrangements, and regulatory updates impacting health plan compliance including HIPAA and mental health parity laws. It provides guidance on plan administration, fiduciary responsibilities, and the implications of recent court rulings and federal agency actions for employers and plan sponsors.
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What Does the Trust Requirement of ERISA Mean?
By Stinson LLP
ERISA requires that plan assets be held in trust so that they are protected from claims of the employer. With pension plans, it is generally easy to determine when assets become plan assets and when they should be held in…
Claims Administrators can be Liable for Violations of the Mental Health Parity Act
By Stinson LLP
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPA) requires health plans to treat mental health and physical health benefits in much the same manner and precludes restrictions on mental health benefits that are not also found to apply to…
Not all Plans can Establish a Shortened Limitations Period for Filing Lawsuit
By Stinson LLP
I recently blogged about a case in which a plan had established a shorter period of time (one year deadline) for filing a lawsuit, rather than relying on the state statute of limitation (six years) which would otherwise have applied.…
Is Your Severance Policy an ERISA Plan?
By Stinson LLP
I wrote an Insight article for firm clients on distinguishing an ERISA severance plan from a non-ERISA severance policy. For those of you not on that distribution list, the article is here.
Participants in Top Hat Plans Must Exhaust Administrative Remedies
By Stinson LLP
So-called “Top Hat” plans are nonqualified deferred compensation plans for a select group of management or highly compensated employees. These executive compensation arrangements are exempt from many ERISA provisions, but are not exempt from ERISA’s claims procedure requirements. Therefore, top…
More Withdrawal Liability for Unsuspecting Business Owners
By Stinson LLP
Don’t Play Hide the Ball with Your Claims Procedure
By Stinson LLP
ERISA does not have a statute of limitations for lawsuits brought by participants to check claim benefits under the plan. Instead, courts borrow from similar state statutes of limitations. In a decision two years ago, the US Supreme Court upheld…
A Summary Plan Description Can be a Plan Document
By Stinson LLP
In a decision issued a couple of years ago, the United States Supreme Court held that a summary plan description that differed from the plan document could not be enforced as the plan document. The Court said that the summary…
More Ways to be Hit With Withdrawal Liability
By Stinson LLP