Business Better Podcast Episode: Bridging Campuses: Legal Insights on Education Industry Consolidation – Labor, Employment, and Benefits
How ERISA Litigators Strengthen Plan Compliance and Risk Management: One-on-One with Jeb Gerth
#WorkforceWednesday®: New DOL Guidance - ERISA Plan Cybersecurity Update - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
ERISA Blog | Changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rules A Primer for Self-Insured Group Health Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What the J&J Case Means for Plan Administrators
The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Federal Rule Aims to Hold Investment Advisors to a Higher Standard
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 – Top-Hat Plans — Special Edition Podcast
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 - Health and Welfare Plan Developments — Special Edition Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Partial Plan Terminations
Podcast Episode 189: Adding Context to Compliance and Color To Your Legal Practice
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2022 Year-End Checklist
An Inside Look as a Juror - FCRA Focus Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
(A)ESOP's Fables - The Income and Estate Tax-Free ESOP
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Group Health Plan Service Provider Compensation Disclosure Requirements
This month’s Friday Five explores recent decisions including deference to initial benefits decisions in de novo reviews, the recovery of fees incurred in pre-litigation administrative proceedings, proof of disability due to...more
In a decision about ERISA’s fiduciary duties and transparency, the Sixth Circuit in Tiara Yachts, Inc. v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan held that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM), a third-party administrator...more
For employers offering benefit plans, fiduciary responsibility is not just a legal designation. Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, the fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care...more
A plan sponsor’s fiduciary duty to be transparent in Pharmacy Benefit Manager contracts safeguards plan participants’ interests and mitigates the risk of litigation, regulatory penalties, and reputational harm, say Hall...more
A federal court recently rejected arguments by MultiPlan, Inc. and Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company that they had no obligation to ensure payments at the contractually negotiated, in-network rate to Anatomic and...more
The Ninth Circuit is considering the enforceability of a choice of law provision in an ERISA plan in William White v. Guardian Life Insurance Company, et al., Case No. 24-2681, appeal pending from the United States District...more
In many situations, practitioners recommend establishing a fiduciary committee to oversee ERISA-covered employee benefit plans. There are several reasons for this, including providing a well-defined process for...more
It happens every so often: someone signs an agreement to arbitrate legal claims, the agreement has a solid clause delegating arbitrability issues to an arbitrator, and then a member of that person’s family files a claim in...more
The May Monthly Minute highlights litigation wins for plan fiduciaries in a 401(k) fee case and a wilderness therapy exclusion case, and also sets out the 2025 HSA, HDHP, and excepted benefit HRA COLA adjustments....more
According to the American Bar Association's nine Private Target Mergers and Acquisitions Deal Point Studies, the use of stand-alone indemnities in reported private company M&A transactions has increased from 69% in its 2007...more
The Sixth Circuit, in a matter of first impression for that Circuit, held an arbitration clause contained in an individual employment agreement did not apply to ERISA fiduciary breach claims brought on behalf of a defined...more
The Commercial Division’s decision in Rockmore v. Plastic Surgery Associates, LLP demonstrates the broad scope of ERISA preemption and the difficulty of pleading breach of fiduciary duty and conversion claims alongside breach...more
In Wong v. Flynn-Kerper, 999 F.3d 1205 (9th Cir. 2021), the Ninth Circuit barred the use of equitable estoppel to challenge the purchase price of company shares under an ERISA stock ownership plan when such use would...more
No good deed goes unpunished. Those of us working with 401(k) plans are familiar with this sentiment. An employee benefit plan, as the name implies, is supposed to benefit employees. Yet benefit plans – particularly 401(k)...more
Courts have struggled through the years when considering the enforceability of mandatory class action waivers and arbitration provisions contained within Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) plans and other...more
Welcome back to the Class Action & MDL Roundup! Our winter edition covers notable class actions from the fourth quarter of 2020. In this edition, we find a common theme among COVID-19 class actions, the Tampa 2 defends...more
An Illinois federal court recently held that the failure to identify a contractual limitations period in a benefits denial letter renders the limitations period unenforceable, even before applicable regulations were changed...more
In Sullivan-Mestecky v. Verizon Communs. Inc., 961 F.3d 91 (2d Cir. 2020), the Second Circuit held that a claim under Section 502(a)(3) of ERISA could proceed, where the beneficiary pled that the plan and its agents...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The courts have stated that their review of fiduciary decisions is both exacting and deferential. A recent decision from the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit offers help to ERISA benefit...more
Employers’ engagement and use of various types of vendors has expanded recently, to include vendors who assist with office re-entry screening and contact tracing as employees return to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. ...more
The Second Circuit recently considered for the first time whether the equitable remedy of reformation was available under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) where a court determined that the written terms of...more
The Eighth Circuit recently concluded that there was no contractual basis to conclude that a pharmacy benefit manager agreed to class arbitration with four pharmacies because the agreement did not use the word “class” or...more
A federal district court in North Carolina enforced a forum selection clause in a short-term disability plan and on that basis transferred the case to Wisconsin federal court. In so ruling, the court explained that ERISA’s...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Reversing course and overruling previous precedent, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit now holds that ERISA plan mandatory arbitration and class action waiver provisions are enforceable, and can...more
The Ninth Circuit, in back-to-back opinion and memorandum decisions in Dorman v. Charles Schwab Corp., overruled long-standing precedent that ERISA claims are not arbitrable. The plaintiff, a former Schwab employee, filed a...more