Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Retirement Security Law
Reforming Pensions While Retaining Shareholder Voice, David H. Webber
Reforming Pensions While Retaining Shareholder Voice, David H. Webber
Faculty Scholarship
Public pension and labor union funds have been the driving force in diversified shareholder activism. They have also fended off attacks on jobs and proactively created jobs for fund contributors. These funds currently represent almost $4 trillion in assets over which workers have substantial control. That worker control - and the collective nature of defined benefit pension plans - is the necessary precondition for their shareholder activism. Both worker control and collective investment are directly threatened by the rise of defined contribution funds, particularly by well-funded efforts to promote the 401(k) in the public sector, the last bastion of the …
Op-Ed: California’S Most Powerful Voice On Wall Street? Its Pensions, David H. Webber
Op-Ed: California’S Most Powerful Voice On Wall Street? Its Pensions, David H. Webber
Shorter Faculty Works
The fight over public pensions in California is almost exclusively described as a dispute between people worried about tax hikes and public servants wanting to get paid what they were promised. But this is only part of the pension story — one focused on the “liability” side of the balance sheet.
A Failure To Supervise: How The Bureaucracy And The Courts Abandoned Their Intended Roles Under Erisa, Lauren R. Roth
A Failure To Supervise: How The Bureaucracy And The Courts Abandoned Their Intended Roles Under Erisa, Lauren R. Roth
Pace Law Review
This Article addresses how courts failed to adequately supervise employers administering pension plans before ERISA. Relying on a number of different legal theories—from an initial theory that pensions were gratuities offered by employers to the recognition that pension promises could create contractual rights—the courts repeatedly found ways to allow employers to promise much and provide little to workers expecting retirement security. In Section III, this Article addresses how Congress failed to create an effective structure for strong bureaucratic enforcement and the bureaucratic agencies with enforcement responsibilities failed to fulfill those functions. Finally, in Section IV, this Article discusses how the …
Promises To Keep: Ensuring The Payment Of Americans' Pension Benefits In The Wake Of The Great Recession, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt
Promises To Keep: Ensuring The Payment Of Americans' Pension Benefits In The Wake Of The Great Recession, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt
Articles by Maurer Faculty
In this essay, I examine the problem of designing a pension plan within the context of our larger public policy of encouraging workers to save for retirement. I discuss the various problems and risks inherent in encouraging workers to adequately save for retirement, invest those assets efficiently, and ensure the planned level of retirement consumption for the remainder of their lives. I also discuss the three major types of pension plans in the American retirement system, defined benefit, defined contribution, and hybrid, and assess how well each of these types of plans deals with the problems encountered in designing a …
Applying Equitable Estoppel To Erisa Pension Benefit Claims, Adam S. Mcgonigle
Applying Equitable Estoppel To Erisa Pension Benefit Claims, Adam S. Mcgonigle
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Changing World Of Employee Benefits, Maria O'Brien Hylton
The Changing World Of Employee Benefits, Maria O'Brien Hylton
Chicago-Kent Law Review
The employee benefits picture, at least for many plan participants and some plan sponsors, is a scary and bleak one. The number of workers with pension coverage is declining, health insurance rates are rising much faster than the rate of inflation, and the number of uninsured continues to rise as well. The decline in union density, the recent boost given by the U.S. Supreme Court to Any Willing Provider ("AWP") laws, and the deluge of recent benefits-related scandals are also all part of this landscape. This Article examines each of these issues, with a focus on reforms that would increase …
Commentary: Is It Time To Take The Broom And Really Clean House? A New Paradigm For Employee Benefits, Mary Ellen Signorille
Commentary: Is It Time To Take The Broom And Really Clean House? A New Paradigm For Employee Benefits, Mary Ellen Signorille
Chicago-Kent Law Review
No abstract provided.
Employment Discrimination Claims Under Erisa Section 510: Should Courts Require Exhaustion Of Arbitral And Plan Remedies?, Jared A. Goldstein
Employment Discrimination Claims Under Erisa Section 510: Should Courts Require Exhaustion Of Arbitral And Plan Remedies?, Jared A. Goldstein
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines whether courts should require section 510 claimants to exhaust either plan-based or arbitral remedies before seeking judicial relief. It begins by comparing the basis for an exhaustion requirement with respect to benefits claims with the basis for such a requirement with respect to statutory claims - like those under section 510. Part I examines the rationale courts have offered for requiring exhaustion of plan remedies for benefits claims. Part I concludes that federal courts have correctly determined that Congress intended individuals bringing benefits claims to exhaust the remedies provided by the plan before seeking judicial relief. Part …
Changing The Rules Of The Game: Pension Plan Terminations And Early Retirement Benefits, Dana M. Muir
Changing The Rules Of The Game: Pension Plan Terminations And Early Retirement Benefits, Dana M. Muir
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines whether early retirement benefits are included among the liabilities that an employer must satisfy before that employer can receive a reversion of excess assets. Part I reviews the background of plan terminations and how they affect early retirement benefits. It also discusses the general structure of ERISA. Part II examines the controversy surrounding whether ERISA's definition of "accrued benefits" includes early retirement benefits. ERISA requires that employees receive all of their accrued benefits before the employers receive any reversions. However, the circuits have disagreed as to whether early retirement benefits are accrued benefits and, therefore, covered by …
Pension Plan Terminations And Asset Reversions: Accommodating The Interests Of Employers And Employees, Carl A. Butler
Pension Plan Terminations And Asset Reversions: Accommodating The Interests Of Employers And Employees, Carl A. Butler
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note focuses on the problems that often arise for plan participants when an overfunded defined benefit plan is terminated and the employer recaptures excess assets. Part I explains the relative ease with which employers can terminate plans and receive excess assets under current pension law. Part II argues that pension law must be reformed because its shortcomings threaten American workers' retirement income security, it allows for sham terminations that remove assets from plans that are, in fact, ongoing, and it usually allows excess assets to go to employers rather than employees. Part III discusses two reforms proposed for plan …
Multiple Legal Representation Of Erisa Plans And Employers Following Allegations Of Fraud And Malfeasance, Elwyn C. Lee
Multiple Legal Representation Of Erisa Plans And Employers Following Allegations Of Fraud And Malfeasance, Elwyn C. Lee
Indiana Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Protecting Retired Workers From Inflation: Collective Bargaining For Retiree Benefits, Richard M. Bank, Thomas C. Woodruff
Protecting Retired Workers From Inflation: Collective Bargaining For Retiree Benefits, Richard M. Bank, Thomas C. Woodruff
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The purpose of this article is to explore whether the collective bargaining process in its present form, or with certain modifications, can provide workers with meaningful protection against inflation. Part I evaluates the adequacy of the collective bargaining process by examining the internal dynamics of unions, the interests of employers and the application of the doctrine of fair representation to collective bargaining. After concluding that the current system inadequately protects retirees, Part II proposes alternative methods to strengthen the role of retirees in the collective bargaining process.