The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has clarified two forms of equitable relief — reformation and surcharge — that may be available under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”). In Skinner v. Northrop Grumman Retirement Plan B, a Ninth Circuit panel held that participants in a pension plan were […]

The Department of Labor (DOL) has recently issued Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2012– 02, in a question and answer format, providing guidance on the participant fee disclosure rules. The FAB addresses various uncertainties in the final DOL regulations and provides needed clarification on a wide array of issues, including disclosure of general plan-related information and […]

There have been several recent court decisions of interest in some of the well-publicized lawsuits contesting the investment selections and the fees charged in a number of large corporate 401(k) plans. Sometimes reaching very different outcomes, these decisions concern the use of retail mutual funds in large plans, alleged breach of fiduciary duties in the […]

On February 3, 2012, eighteen months after announcing an interim final rule, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published a final rule (“Final Rule”) adopting disclosure requirements for retirement plan service providers under Section 408(b)(2) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). The Final Rule requires “covered service providers” to disclose certain information […]

Beginning in May 2012 fiduciaries of participant-directed individual account plans, such as 401(k) plans, must provide additional disclosures to participants. We have previously written in detail about what information is required to be disclosed under Section 404(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), and the 404(a) regulations (see our […]

The Department of Labor has released a final regulation (“Final Regulation”) under Section 404(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), requiring fiduciaries of participant-directed individual account plans to disclose certain plan and investment-related information, including fee and expense information, to participants and beneficiaries. The DOL states that the required […]

On October 21, 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) released a proposed regulation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), to define more broadly the circumstances in which a person may be considered a “fiduciary” by reason of providing “investment advice” to an employee benefit plan or its participants. […]

On July 15, 2010, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) took a significant step in finalizing a regulation meant to provide retirement plan fiduciaries with the information they need to determine the reasonableness of compensation paid to service providers and to assess how those services are affected by potential conflicts of interest. The interim final rule […]

In its second significant ERISA decision in as many months, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that a court may award an ERISA litigant attorney’s fees even if it does not actually “prevail” in its case. Earlier, in an April decision, the Court reaffirmed the vitality of the deferential standard of review that ERISA […]

On January 14, 2010, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published a final regulation (29 CFR 2510.3–102) (“Regulation”) which creates an optional safe harbor period for small plans for the timely deposit of participant contributions. During this period, amounts that an employer has received from employees or withheld from wages for contributions to contributory group welfare […]

E-mail and internal or external web sites are the communication tools of choice for many (if not most) Plan Sponsors and Plan Administrators. When electronically delivering documents or when setting up a web site, it’s easy to overlook the following: Disclaimers When a third party sets up a web site for plan participants, the web […]

Issuing a much anticipated opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a 401(k) plan sponsor, a mutual fund investment advisor and an affiliated trustee were not subject to suit for providing investment options with allegedly excessive and unreasonable fees and failing to disclose revenue-sharing arrangements between the mutual fund investment […]

On August 22, 2008, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued proposed regulations and a proposed class exemption which implement the statutory prohibited transaction exemption for the provision of investment advice under the amendments made by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (“PPA”) to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and the Internal […]

Amid a background of 401(k) fee litigation brought by plan participants, and Congressional fee disclosure proposals, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the Department of Labor (“DOL”) has released proposed regulations under ERISA section 404(a) (“proposed regulations”) that would require enhanced disclosure by plan fiduciaries of information concerning investment alternatives and fees to participants in […]

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Glenn (“MetLife”) attempted to answer two questions concerning ERISA benefits litigation, both of which have been a source of disagreement among the circuit courts of appeals: Does an entity that both funds benefits and decides claims operate under a conflict of interest? If such […]