The United States Supreme Court recently held in King v. Burwell that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) permits individuals to receive health insurance premium subsidies through federally-facilitated exchanges (in addition to state-based exchanges). Because this decision is consistent with existing
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.
Latest from Benefit Notes - Page 8
Same Sex Marriage: Effect on Benefits
By Stinson LLP
The United States Supreme Court recently held in Obergefell v. Hodges http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf that all states must recognize and allow marriages between same sex partners. Depending on an employer’s current employee benefits plan, certain provisions may need to be changed in…
Using Your IRA to Buy a Business: Still a Risky Strategy
By Stinson LLP
Retiree Medical Plans can Impose Lifetime Limits
By Stinson LLP
Employers who sponsor medical plans know that those plans can no longer impose lifetime limits on essential health benefits. One exception is for medical plans that cover fewer than two active employees. Retiree medical plans that are separate from the…
Standard of Review is Important – Again
By Stinson LLP
I recently blogged about the importance the standard of review can make when a court decides whether a claims decision made under an employer plan will be upheld. My recent blog post dealt with the standard of review under a…
Internet Posting of SPD is Insufficient
By Stinson LLP
Employers know that they must prepare and distribute a summary plan description (SPD) for their ERISA benefit plans, including retirement benefits, health insurance, life insurance and disability insurance. Because of the length of such documents, employers may prefer to distribute…
Supreme Court: 401(k) Plan Fiduciaries Have an Ongoing Duty to Monitor
In April 2013 I reported on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Tibble v. Edison International, which involved an alleged breach of fiduciary duty by the Edison 401(k) Savings Plan committee selecting six retail mutual funds when…
Are Top Hat Plans Entitled to a Discretionary Standard of Review?
By Stinson LLP
Many years ago the Supreme Court decided that qualified retirement plans that gave their fiduciaries discretion to determine plan benefits were entitled to have their decisions, reviewed by a court under a generous “abuse of discretion” standard. Although that standard…
Some Wellness Benefits are Taxable
By Stinson LLP
My colleagues blogged on recent wellness guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the three agencies charged with enforcing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Department of Treasury, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and…
A Bad Deed is Not Entirely Unpunished
By Stinson LLP
Richard Thomas embezzled nearly $20,000,000 from his employer. The employer then kept Thomas’s profit sharing account of about $21,000 as an offset against the embezzled amount. Of course, this violated ERISA’s anti-alienation provisions. Thomas sued his former employer for the…