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Sarah Abrams

In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, takes a look at President Trump’s recent Executive Order designed to expand the investment options available in 401(k) and other defined-contribution retirement plans, and considers the Order’s potential implications for ERISA liability and insurance. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post contributions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Will I Ever Retire?

Larry Fine

In the following guest post, Larry Fine takes a look at the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 2025 decision in the Cornell University ERISA fiduciary liability case. Larry is Management Liability Coverage Leader, Willis FINEX. A version of this article previously was published as a WTW client alert. I would like to thank Larry for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Larry’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Why the Supreme Court’s Cornell Decision May Not Have a Major Effect on ERISA Fiduciary Exposure

One of the more notable fiduciary liability trends in recent years has been the wave of employer-sponsored retirement account excess fee litigation. In the following guest post, Neil R. Morrison, Lars Golumbic, and Kara Petteway Wheatley take a look at a possible new fiduciary liability trend – health plan fee litigation. Neil is an Associate Vice President and Claims Counsel at Sompo, North America in Morristown, N.J., and Lars Golumbic and Kara Petteway Wheatley are Principals at Groom Law Group, Chartered in Washington, D.C. This article was originally published by Mealey’s Litigation Report: ERISA.  I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the authors’ article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Health Plan Fee Litigation: The Next Wave of ERISA Litigation?

In the following guest post, James L. Griffith, Jr., of the Reger Rizzo Darnall LLP law firm, takes a look at looming retirement funding problems and the potential liability implications for ERISA fiduciaries. Jim also makes some recommendations on ways that fiduciaries can try to reduce their risk profile. I would like to thank Jim for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Jim’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Protecting ERISA Fiduciaries from Wrongful Blame for the Retirement Funding Crisis

daveandbustersThe Affordable Care Act – better known as Obamacare – contains numerous provisions that define the relationships between employers and their employees with respect to health care benefits. Among the most critical are the statute’s employer mandates requiring employers with more than 50 employees to offer health insurance coverage to its employees who work 30 hours or more a week or face statutory penalties. As I have previously noted in discussing possible Obamacare-related employer liability issues, the ACA’s mandate creates incentives for employers to try to restructure their workforce to avoid the statute’s requirements. However, as I have also noted, employer actions to restructure their workforces to avoid providing health plan benefits could lead to liability claims under ERISA.

A recent decision from the Southern District of New York shows how an employer’s actions to reduce full-time staff to part-time status — allegedly undertaken in an effort to avoid the health care law’s impact — can lead to ERISA class action claims. The decision also underscores how the affected employees may be able to assert viable ERISA claims.
Continue Reading Can Workforce Changes Made in Response to Obamacare Mandates Lead to Employer Liability Claims? Yes, They Can

sup ct 5ERISA plan fiduciaries have a continuing duty to monitor selected plan investments and to remove imprudent investment selections, according to the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous May 18, 2015 opinion in Tibble v. Edison International. Although the Court affirmed the fiduciary duty to monitor, it otherwise left the development of the duty’s contours to be delineated…

dolAccording to a June 23, 2014 Wall Street Journal article entitled “U.S. Increases Scrutiny of Employee-Stock Ownership Plans” (here), the federal government is “stepping up scrutiny of how U.S. companies are valued for employee-stock ownership plans.” This increased scrutiny includes increased litigation activity, often alleging that ESOP share valuations are flawed. The targets …

On July 24, 2013, in a case the court said was one of “first impression,” the First Circuit held that, due to the nature of its involvement in the management of its portfolio company’s operations, a private equity firm was potentially liable for the portfolio company’s pension obligations. The decision has significant implications for the…