Retirement Security Law Commons^™

A Failure To Supervise: How The Bureaucracy And The Courts Abandoned Their Intended Roles Under Erisa, Lauren R. Roth

Scholarly Works

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 …

Central Falls Retirees V. Bondholders: Assessing Fear Of Contagion In Chapter 9 Proceedings, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

Modern Chapter 9 litigation has been characterized by extraordinary protections for municipal bondholders, and Central Falls is no exception. Although not well understood by politicians, fear of contagion has encouraged the adoption of legal arrangements that have limited the bankruptcy courts’ ability to include bondholders in the cost of restructuring municipal debt. This preference for bondholders (and, by extension, their insurers) has meant increased misery for taxpayers and retirees. Given that all of these actors appear to have been complicit to some degree in the creation and maintenance of the fiscally imprudent conditions that triggered bankruptcy and that evidence of …

Thoughts On The Latest Battles Over Erisa's Remedies, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

It is extraordinarily unlikely that the drafters of ERISA foresaw the effect the statute would have on federal courts and American economic life. It was originally conceived as a "pension bill of rights" designed to ensure that workers received the fixed monthly pension payment (based on tenure and average salary) that they had been promised. It grew, however, into the most litigated statute in the United States Code; to govern increasingly popular individual retirement savings accounts, e.g., 401(k) accounts;4 to be the central statute regulating employment based health insurance, which covers over one hundred and sixty million people; to be …

Public Policy And Consumer Disclosure For The Income Annuity Market, 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. 795 (2013), Kelli Hueler, Paula Hogan, Anna Rappaport

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Tracker Plan: A Controlled Risk Defined Contribution Retirement Program, 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. 681 (2013), Rowland Davis

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Longevity Insurance: Strengthening Social Security For Older Retirees, 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. 843 (2013), John A. Turner

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The 11th Annual Employee Benefits Symposium: America's Retirement Crisis: What Can Be Done, 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. Xxiii (2013), Kathryn J. Kennedy

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The "Crisis" In Retirement Security: Social Security Is The Answer, Not The Problem, 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. 719 (2013), Martha Holstein, Kristen Pavle

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Addressing The Challenges Women Face In Retirement: Improving Social Security, Pensions, And Ssi, 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. 749 (2013), Joan Entmacher, Amy Matsui

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

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

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Is The Correct Standard Of Prudence In Employer Stock Cases?, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 541 (2012), José Martin Jara

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword: The Past, Present, And Future Of Supreme Court Jurisprudence On Erisa, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. Xxv (2012), Colleen E. Medill

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court Fills A Gaping Hole: Cigna Corp. V. Amara Clarifies The Scope Of Equitable Relief Under Erisa, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 767 (2012), Susan Harthill

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Summary Plan Descriptions After Amara, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 811 (2012), David Pratt

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Purpose Over Formality: Putting An End To The Catch-22 Preventing Workers From Speaking Up About Erisa Benefit Abuse, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 893 (2012), Lucas Walker

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Combating Moral Hazard: The Case For Rationalizing Public Employee Benefits, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

The current crisis in public employee benefits is a fairly conventional moral hazard story about overly generous promises made by both private sector employers and politicians spending public dollars. The private sector, forced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in 1993 to confront the true cost of promises made to future retirees, dealt with the newly discovered debt in a number of ways, including the termination of defined benefit plans which were quickly replaced by defined contribution plans. The public sector was also forced to confront its own largesse with the implementation of GASB 45 which focused careful attention …

Defined (Yet Uncertain) Benefit Pension Plans In America, Travis Bayer

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Despite playing a central role in many public and private employees' retirements, defined benefit pension plans are woefully underfunded. Moreover, the combination of a Baby Boomer retirement bulge and a struggling economy are putting even more pressure on defined benefit plans. This Note examines relevant background information regarding defined benefit pension plans and demographic data of the Baby Boomer generation. This Note then explores how and to what extent states and private employers have created contractual obligations through defined benefit plans and addresses what happens when those contractual obligations are breached. Finally, this Note suggests that litigation cannot provide a …

An Overview Of The U.S. Retirement Income Security System And The Principles And Values It Reflects, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article is designed to provide an overview of the U.S. retirement income security system from a comparative law perspective. Like many countries, the U.S. has a three tier pension or retirement income system, with the three tiers consisting of (1) Social Security, (2) employment-based pensions, and (3) individual savings. Thus, superficially, the U.S. retirement income security system resembles that of many around the world. Yet, in other ways, such as its focus on individual rights and responsibility, the U.S. system is unique.

The article begins by discussing the nine guiding principles of the U.S. Social Security system as identified …

Pension Reform: How Have Workers Fared?, Edward N. Wolff

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The "Current Monthly Income" Debate: Unemployment Compensation As A "Benefit Received Under The Social Security Act"?, 44 J. Marshall L. Rev. 801 (2011), Brent Wilson

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Redressing All Erisa Fiduciary Breaches Under Section 409 (A), Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Erisa Preemption Doctrine As Health Policy, Joshua P. Booth, Larry I. Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Golden Gate And The Ninth Circuit’S Threat To Erisa’S Uniformity And Jurisprudence , Landon Wade Magnusson

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of The Applicability Of Erisa To Indian Tribes: We May Finally Have Congressional Intent, But It's Still Flawed, Alicia K. Crawford

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vebas To The Rescue: Evaluating One Alternative For Public Sector Retiree Health Benefits, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 879 (2009), Susan E. Cancelosi

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Funding Public Pension Plans, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 837 (2009), Jonathan Barry Forman

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Primer On The Need To Continue Monitoring Closely The Transfer Of Social Welfare Risk And Liability Of Employee Benefit Plans, James E. Holloway

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article examines why federal legislative policy-makers and judicial decision-makers should ascertain the impact of the transfer of risk and liability on furthering welfare and security interests and preserving organizational discretion under ERISA and public policy. Part I explains why business organizations or employers transfer risk and liability to employees and retirees. This transfer occurs where global business outcomes cause social consequences that are driven directly by business decisions responding to new global competition and less American economic standing. Part II explains the need to assess the substantive issues and public policy concerns underlying legislative acts and judicial interpretations limiting …

Erisa Misrepresentation And Nondisclosure Claims: Securities Litigation Under The Guise Of Erisa?, Clovis Trevino Bravo

Georgetown Law Student Series

In the wake of recent corporate scandals and dramatic market downturns, many employees whose retirement savings plans were heavily invested in the stock of their employer have seen their account balances substantially depleted. To recover for their losses, plan participants have filed lawsuits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) alleging that plan fiduciaries made misrepresentations or failed to disclose material information about the suitability of investing in the company stock. These suits are generally derivative or companion cases to securities class actions based on the same allegations of misrepresentations or nondisclosures. Even though there is a significant overlap …

Baby Ka-Boom! Coming Developments In Erisa Litigation Due To Social, Demographic, And Financial Pressures From The Baby Boom Generation, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1037 (2008), Craig C. Martin, Matthew J. Renaud, Douglas A. Sondgeroth

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.