PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) Explained
Podcast: Discussing and Demystifying the IRS News Release on ESOPs
(A)ESOP's Fables - The Income and Estate Tax-Free ESOP
Investment Management Update – Exit Strategies
ESOPs: A Path to Bank Independence
Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) have been used as a business succession strategy by employers across many industries. In the cannabis industry, ESOPs have come and gone and come again as a trendy topic promising to fix...more
On behalf of the ESOPs, Benefits & Compensation team, we hope your Summer is off to a great start. In the time of family vacations and out-of-office replies, the pace of employee benefits changes—both large and small—remains...more
All qualified retirement plans are subject to a myriad of requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is charged with enforcing the...more
On behalf of the ESOPs & Employee Benefits team, we hope you’re enjoying the first days of Spring, when the longer days allow more time to ponder the ever-changing landscape of employee benefits compliance. Please find below...more
The Secure Act 2.0 of 2022, enacted in the closing days of 2022, makes a substantial number of changes to tax-qualified retirement plans, most of which are intended to increase plan coverage and retirement savings. Although...more
While case law regarding the enforceability of arbitration provisions in ERISA retirement plans has been mixed, since the Ninth Circuit’s 2019 decision in Dorman v. Charles Schwab Corp. enforcing a 401(k) plan’s arbitration...more
The Senate ushered in the New Year with a bang by passing SECURE 2.0 on December 22, 2022. SECURE 2.0 includes many updates to the sweeping changes brought about under 2019’s original SECURE Act legislation...more
Happy Fall from the K&C ESOPs & Employee Benefits practice group. We’ve compiled a short list of employee benefits updates from the third quarter of 2022....more
Happy Summer from the K&C ESOPs & Employee Benefits practice group. We’ve compiled a short list of employee benefits updates from the second quarter of 2022....more
Happy Spring from the K&C ESOPs & Employee Benefits practice group. We’ve compiled a short list of employee benefits updates from the first quarter of 2022....more
A federal district court in Maryland recently declined to certify an interlocutory appeal to the Fourth Circuit on the issue of whether financial institutions can “hardwire” a preference for their own proprietary investment...more
ERISA litigation tends to spike when economic uncertainty or turmoil rises. Although many things contribute to this historically verifiable trend, it is easiest for employers to think about just two of them. First, an...more
A 401(k) plan and its administrators are defending the administrator’s decision to require a special valuation of former employees’ account values, given extraordinary market changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the...more
Good news for defined-benefit pension plan sponsors. Decision should discourage class action litigation involving defined-benefit plan investments....more
The Second Circuit sent shock waves through the community of ERISA stock-drop practitioners late last year in Jander v. Retirement Plans Committee of IBM by finding plan participants had plausibly alleged a breach of duty of...more
• Some retirement plans, including employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), have in the past few years included terms and provisions that require participant breach of fiduciary claims to be resolved in arbitration on a...more
Seyfarth synopsis: The Second Circuit reversed dismissal of an ERISA stock drop class action finding plaintiff alleged enough to plausibly show that disclosure of alleged corporate problems would not have done more harm than...more
After a long period of relative stability enjoyed by sponsors of qualified retirement plans, several significant modifications have been made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Act), following closely on the heels of...more
Editor's Overview - Welcome once again to Proskauer's newly revamped ERISA Newsletter. As a reminder, readers can obtain the information in this Newsletter as it is published on our blog. Our featured article this...more
I always believe that regardless of whether it’s business or in regular day-to-day life, that you can’t be everything for everybody. Being honest with that is only half the battle. A lot of times, I met folks who are...more
Overview - Court cases challenging the actions of Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciaries have continued unabated since the scandal of Enron in 2002. Since then, a large number of cases are in the ‘‘stock...more
Speed Read - The Ninth Circuit becomes the first appellate court to interpret the Supreme Court’s Fifth Third v. Dudenhoeffer holding. In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit held that participants can maintain a claim...more
In the Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer decision issued June 25, 2014, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the “Moench presumption”, a presumption of prudence for employer stock held in an ESOP or a 401(k) plan company...more
The employee benefits issues to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court continue to be of great significance to plan sponsors and fiduciaries. This month we review the Court's employee benefit decisions from 2013 and also...more
Introduction - In Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether investments in employer stock are entitled to a “prudence presumption” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act...more