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145 Matching News Items
1.
Further Thoughts on Sellers v. Boston College
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
May 9, 2024
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
May 9, 2024
"The problem with [the Sellers reasoning] is that it treats fiduciary prudence as infinite, as something that can always be challenged in court as having been insufficient no matter how much was done ... At some point, a fiduciary has engaged in more than enough prudence to satisfy the statutory obligation ... [T]here is always more that could be done, but that alone shouldn't preclude finding that a fiduciary did, in fact, enough." [Sellers v. Trustees of Boston College, No. 22-10912 (D. Mass Apr. 11, 2024)]
2.
What Does Arbitrary and Capricious Review Really Mean, Anyway?
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Jan. 23, 2024
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Jan. 23, 2024
"[If] you are a plan administrator or sponsor, or a lawyer representing one, you think it describes a standard of review that should broadly insulate plan decisions from challenge, while if you are a plan participant, or a lawyer who represents plan participants, you think the entire doctrine is a wrong road that the Supreme Court set off down years ago without thinking and from which no one can now exit.... [In] the real world, arbitrary and capricious review is often little more than a shibboleth that precludes, rather than encourages, careful thought over these issues."
3.
Using ERISA Plans to Counter Economic Inequality
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Sept. 28, 2023
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Sept. 28, 2023
"ERISA and the employee benefit structure it governs are rife with opportunities to address the limitations on wealth accumulation among those born without it and who instead rely on the workplace to make their way in the world. Better employers already use it that way, and have long done so by such mechanisms as matching contributions and ESOP participation. But simple revisions could greatly expand the efficacy of ERISA plans as a means to address economic inequality and the problems it engenders by making simple changes that would increase the wealth of plan participants and beneficiaries."
4.
Social Inflation Is Coming for Employment Verdicts, Too
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Sept. 19, 2023
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Sept. 19, 2023
"Section 510 of ERISA bars retaliation or similar employment actions against employees who exercise their rights under ERISA. For years, such claims.... lacked legs.... Recent decisions ... suggest that this dynamic is well on its way to changing, and that recovery under Section 510 is a risk that plan sponsors and their lawyers now have to take seriously at all times." [Kairys v. S. Pines Trucking, Inc., No. 22-1783 (3d Cir. July 25, 2023)]
5.
What the Verdict in Yale Tells Us About a Time-Tested Way to Reduce Excessive Fee Litigation Against Plan Sponsors
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
July 7, 2023
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
July 7, 2023
"[T]his outcome -- whether it had been after trial to the bench or instead to a jury -- is one more fact showing that the best industry wide approach to these types of claims is to say 'prove it' and force plaintiffs' counsel to do so at trial, without regard to whether it will be tried to the bench or instead to a jury." [Vellali v. Yale Univ., No. 16-1345 (D. Conn. Jun. 28, 2023)]
6.
A Time-Tested Way to Reduce Excessive Fee Litigation Against Plan Sponsors
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
May 8, 2023
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
May 8, 2023
"[M]ore and more plaintiffs' firms have moved into this area as settlement values have gone up, and more and more cases, against smaller and smaller plans, have been filed as a result.... Is there a solution to this dynamic? Yes, there is ... don't settle and instead try all cases to conclusion.... It will take awhile and, during that time period, require accepting a substantial increase in defense costs across the industry, but in the long run, it will reduce the number of suits, the amount of defense costs incurred and the amounts paid out in settlement,"
7.
Jury Trials in ERISA Cases: No Cause for Alarm
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
May 2, 2023
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
May 2, 2023
"[T]he increase in defense costs linked to the rise of jury trials in this context isn't just a question of the relative cost of conducting a jury trial relative to the cost of bench trials. Instead, it is driven by the fact that the possibility of jury trials is likely to increase the number of trials and the amount sought in settlement of these types of cases.... However, from a merits perspective, it is not entirely clear that jury trials in this context are by definition a bad thing."
8.
Is There a Baked-In 20% Systemic Tax on Retirement Benefits in America?
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Mar. 22, 2023
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Mar. 22, 2023
"There is, in essence, a structural barrier to the payout of benefits across the board to the American workforce.... [T]he few bad apples, when combined with the inherent barriers to full payment of employees that are baked into the system, complicates and reduces retirement and benefit payouts to the American workforce as a whole[.]"
9.
Prevailing in an ERISA Case Under Discretionary Review Gets Harder for Insurers
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Dec. 30, 2022
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Dec. 30, 2022
"[A] new District Court decision ... concerning mental health benefits ... found that the insurer had an insufficient basis for denying out of network benefits to the insured because the insurer failed to directly address and refute the insured's medical basis for seeking the out of network treatment.... [T]he decision reflects a move toward a more searching analysis of the administrative record to determine whether a denial was proper, and away from allowing insurers to deny benefits based on general conclusions as to the overall body of evidence." [K.D. v. Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, No. 20-11964 (D. Mass. Dec. 12, 2022)]
10.
Are Retirement Plans Too Complicated and at Risk of Becoming Even More So?
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Nov. 29, 2022
Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group
Nov. 29, 2022
"[T]he complexity reinforces and in many ways increases the inequities built into the system, by making it harder for smaller employers to provide retirement benefits and for employees, across the board and regardless of the size of their employer, to access and make use of them.... It is simply too complex an area for small employers, who are not trying to do anything fancy but instead simply trying to provide industry standard defined contribution plans for their employees."
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