News & Analysis as of

Annuities Employee Benefits Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Selecting Annuity Providers for Retirement Plans: Tips for Success

When a plan administrator selects an insurer to provide annuities for a retirement plan subject to ERISA, it is engaging in a fiduciary act that must be conducted prudently. Mistakes in this process can expose the plan...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

A Marriage of Old and New: Transamerica, Nuveen, and TIAA Team Up on Lifetime Income Solution

In a world where retirement plan innovation often comes with more flash than substance, it’s refreshing to see a strategic alliance that actually addresses a fundamental challenge in defined contribution plans: providing real...more

Carlton Fields

NAIC Annuity Suitability Working Group Issues Guidance on Insurers’ Oversight of Third-Party Supervising Entities

Carlton Fields on

On August 7, 2025, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Annuity Suitability (A) Working Group issued draft safe harbor regulatory guidance with a comment period that ends on September 22, 2025. The draft...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

First Rulings on Pension Risk Transfer — ERISA Class Actions Reach Opposite Conclusions on Article III Standing

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

The first two district court opinions deciding whether plaintiffs have Article III standing to challenge pension risk transfers have reached opposite conclusions. One case will proceed to discovery, and the other has been...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

The New Fiduciary Rule (42):The Regulation and Exemptions are Stayed (2)—What Remains?

The DOL’s fiduciary regulation was scheduled to become effective this September 23. The exemptions were scheduled to become partially effective this September 23 and fully effective September 23, 2025....more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

The New Fiduciary Rule (33): The DOL’s Final PTE 84-24

On April 25, 2024, the Department of Labor published its final regulation defining fiduciary status for investment advice and the related exemptions—PTE 2020-02 and 84-24. The exemptions provide relief from prohibited...more

Mayer Brown

United States: The Long Read - Lifetime Income Products in CITs on the Rise

Mayer Brown on

As recently noted by the US Department of Labor (“DOL”), since the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), “the retirement plan landscape has changed significantly, with a shift from defined...more

Carlton Fields

Ringmaster’s Review: Fall 2023 Litigation on Parade

Carlton Fields on

In Ross v. Venerable Insurance & Annuity Co., a Missouri appellate court reversed judgment in favor of the named beneficiary of a flexible premium deferred annuity contract. Following the annuitant’s death, the beneficiary...more

Carlton Fields

Expect Focus - Volume III, September 2023

Carlton Fields on

Regulators Hit Jackpot: Off-Channel Communications - Several years before announcing the first “off-channel” communications enforcement action, the SEC and FINRA cautioned broker-dealers and investment advisers about...more

Carlton Fields

Must ERISA Actuarial Equivalence Be “Reasonable”?

Carlton Fields on

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts recently diverged from other decisions interpreting the term “actuarial equivalent” in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) class action, finding that...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

I won’t add annuity options to 401(k) plans

When it comes to plan design, I believe in the idea of KISS: keep it simple, stupid....more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

BlackRock adding annuities to product lineup

With a push for fixed income products, there is n shock that BlackRock is putting annuities in American workers’ 401(k)Plan....more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Interim Final Rule on Defined Contribution Plan Lifetime Income Disclosures

Foley & Lardner LLP on

Earlier this year, we discussed the lifetime income disclosure requirement that was included in the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”). When the disclosure requirement becomes...more

Burr & Forman

The Countdown Begins for Lifetime Income Disclosures

Burr & Forman on

The SECURE Act of 2019 made three statutory changes to ERISA regarding lifetime income benefit payments from defined contribution plans (e.g., 401(k), 403(b), profit sharing, and money purchase pension plans). This blog will...more

Groom Law Group, Chartered

Big Win for Employer in Actuarial Equivalence Case – Class Certification Denied

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas dealt a major blow to the putative class action Torres v. American Airlines, Inc., finding that the four named plaintiffs are not adequate class representatives for...more

Holland & Knight LLP

The Latest Decisions in Actuarial Equivalent Lawsuits

Holland & Knight LLP on

In an opinion issued in Smith v. Rockwell Automation, Inc., et al., No. 19-C-0505 (E.D. Wis.) on Feb. 10, 2020, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman denied Rockwell Automation's motion to dismiss a putative class action complaint...more

Groom Law Group, Chartered

Court Challenges to DB Plan Actuarial Assumptions – One Year Later

Eleven cases have been filed against defined benefit pension plan sponsors and certain fiduciaries alleging that the plan’s assumptions—called “actuarial equivalence factors” or “actuarial equivalence assumptions”— for...more

King & Spalding

The SECURE Act Reduces—But Does Not Eliminate—Litigation Risk of Offering Annuities in 401(k) Plans

King & Spalding on

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, the most important retirement legislation since the Pension Protection Act of 2006. One of the most...more

Bracewell LLP

SECURE Act Provisions

Bracewell LLP on

Major changes in federal law are in the works that could significantly impact employers’ qualified retirement plans, which could require amending such plans to reflect mandatory and elective changes.  The U.S. House of...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Ninth Circuit Rules that a Domestic Partner Under California State Law Was a Spouse for an ERISA Plan

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

In an unpublished decision dated May 16, 2019, the Ninth Circuit held that a plan administrator abused its discretion by denying surviving spouse benefits under an ERISA retirement benefit plan to a participant’s domestic...more

Laner Muchin, Ltd.

Pension Plan Sponsors Should Be Mindful Of A New Wave Of Class Action Lawsuits

Laner Muchin, Ltd. on

In December 2018, class action lawsuits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) were filed against several large single-employer defined benefit plans.  The suits focus on the calculation of joint and...more

Carlton Fields

Did Santa Give the Insurance Industry a Lump of Coal or a Diamond in the Rough? The Proposed Suitability and Best Interest...

Carlton Fields on

As reported in our November 28 client alert, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Annuity Suitability Working Group (Suitability WG) circulated the proposed Suitability and Best Interest Standard of...more

Carlton Fields

The DOL Fiduciary Rule: Charting a Course, Avoiding Collisions & Potential Litigation Q&A #4 - Q&As on Annuity Sales Practices,...

Carlton Fields on

For the past several months, we have written about potential litigation issues under the “revised temporary” DOL Rule involving the offer and sale of annuities in the IRA market. This article continues that discussion. ...more

Carlton Fields

The DOL Fiduciary Rule: Charting A Course, Avoiding Collisions & Potential Litigation Q&A #4 - Q&As on Annuity Sales Practices,...

Carlton Fields on

For the past several months, we have written about potential litigation issues under the “revised temporary” DOL Rule involving the offer and sale of annuities in the IRA market. This article continues that discussion. Recall...more

Carlton Fields

The DOL Fiduciary Rule: Charting a Course, Avoiding Collisions & Potential Litigation Q&A #2 - Q&As on Annuity Sales Practices,...

Carlton Fields on

Last month, we wrote about potential litigation issues under the “revised temporary” DOL Rule involving the offer and sale of annuities in the IRA market. This paper continues that discussion. I emphasize to the reader that...more

32 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 2

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide