Retirement Security Law Commons^™

Newsroom: Yelnosky On State Pension Dispute, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Broker-Dealers And Investment Advisers: A Behaviorial-Economics Analysis Of Competing Suggestions For Reform, Polina Demina

Michigan Law Review

For the average investor trying to save for retirement or a child’s college fund, the world of investing has become increasingly complex. These retail investors must turn more frequently to financial intermediaries, such as broker-dealers and investment advisers, to get sound investment advice. Such intermediaries perform different duties for their clients, however. The investment adviser owes his client a fiduciary duty of care and therefore must provide financial advice that is in the client’s best interests, while the broker-dealer must merely provide advice that is suitable to the client’s interests—a lower standard than the fiduciary duty of care. And yet …

Gender Discrimination - European Economic Community - European Court Of Justice Determines That A Non-Contributory Occupational Pension Scheme Should Not Discriminate On The Basis Of Sex. Barber V. Royal Exchange Assurance Group, 1990 E. Comm. Ct. J. Rep. ___, [1990] 2 Comm. Mkt. L. Rep. 513., R. Mace Flournoy

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Best Of Times And The Worst Of Times: Lessons From Recent Reforms Of The French Retirement, Kathryn L. Moore

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A Public Pensions Bailout: Economics And Law, Terrance O'Reilly

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In several states, public pension plans are at risk of insolvency within a decade. These risks are significant, and the solutions currently contemplated are likely to fall short of what is necessary to contain the problem. If public pension plans do become insolvent, it seems likely the federal government will bail them out. This Article proposes that the federal government prepare for the prospect of federal financial support of public pension plans by instituting an optional regulatory regime for public pensions. If a state elects not to participate, its public pension plans would be ineligible for federal financial support. In …

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 …

Social Insecurity: A Modest Proposal For Remedying Federal District Court Inconsistency In Social Security Cases, Jonah J. Horwitz

Pace Law Review

This Article addresses a relatively narrow but consequential problem in the system: the inadequacy of federal judicial resolution of appeals from the denial of Social Security disability benefits. It addresses the problem with an equally narrow, and hopefully equally consequential, solution: granting a published district court decision in such a case the power of binding precedent with respect to the judicial district in which the opinion is issued. In so doing, greater uniformity, consistency, fairness, and efficiency would be brought to a process that is badly in need of all.

The Article proceeds in five parts. Part I provides some …

Same Sex Marriage In A Post-Perry And Windsor America, Kathryn L. Moore, Allison I. Connelly, Ross T. Ewing

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

These materials accompanied a presentation at the 2014 Kentucky Bar Association Annual Convention entitled Same Sex Marriage in a Post-Perry and Windsor America. The focus of this presentation was on: the legal landscape following major LGBTQ civil rights cases; how these cases would impact families in Kentucky; and any employment or retirement issues.

Fueling The Death Spiral For Workers' Pensions: The Bankruptcy Process And Multiemployer Pension Plans, Colleen Ray

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

This comment examines how the Bankruptcy Code undermines the retirement security goals of ERISA and MPPAA. The article traces the development of multiemployer pension plans and the regulatory scheme. In addition, it discusses how withdrawal liability functions and how employer withdrawals affect the other employers contributing to a multiemployer pension plan. Next, it addresses the Bankruptcy Code’s treatment of withdrawal liability. Finally, the comment analyzes the impact of discharging withdrawal liability by discussing In re Hostess Brands, Inc.

Pension Action Center, Pension Action Center, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Pension Action Center, (PAC) strives to improve retirees’ and workers’ standard of living in retirement through individual case advocacy; referrals to appropriate programs and professionals; and issue analysis and reform of public policy. The center, which is part of the Gerontology Institute at UMass Boston, focuses on the experience of participants in retirement plans throughout its work. The PAC is a one-of-a-kind organization in New England that touches the lives of thousands of people.

Employers As Risks, Amy B. Monahan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In evaluating health and retirement security in the United States, much recent work has focused on shortcomings in individual decision making. For example, in explaining why 401(k) plans are suboptimal for achieving retirement security, a significant volume of literature has catalogued the mistakes individuals make when attempting to save for retirement through such plans. This article seeks to move the discussion of suboptimal decision making in a new direction, by focusing on the impact that employer decision making has on the ability of employees to achieve health and retirement security. The article argues that employer decision making regarding whether to …

Are Defined Contribution Pension Plans Fit For Purpose In Retirement?, Jeremy R. Cooper

Seattle University Law Review

This Article considers the historical basis for the shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, the structural and practical shortcomings of defined contribution plans, alternate pension models, and adjustments to existing retirement plan models that may offer a degree of protection to plan contributors. Like the United States, Australia is now realizing the limitations of a defined contribution retirement system insofar as it relates the provision of reliable retirement income for a population with increasing life expectancy. Unlike defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans provide a benefit based typically on time served and a predetermined proportion of either …

Financial Security Scorecard: A State-By-State Analysis Of Economic Pressures Facing Future Retirees, Christian Weller, Nari Rhee, Carolyn Arcand

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

As Americans increasingly worry about their retirement prospects, states play an important and growing role in retirement security policy. States already manage long-term care programs for the elderly through Medicaid. Concerned about the impact of future elder poverty on state and local budgets and their local economies, a number of states are exploring the creation of low-cost and low-risk retirement savings plans for private sector workers who lack access to pensions or 401(k)s on the job. Some states have developed programs to help older workers find work.

This report presents the Financial Security Scorecard, designed to inform state-level stakeholders and …

How Much Is Too Much? Employer-Sponsored Plan Notice And Reporting Requirements Under Ppaca, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev 855 (2014), Carrie Byrnes, Brian Berglund

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unfinished Business: The Affordable Care Act And The Problem Of Delayed And Denied Erisa Health Care Claim, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 887 (2014), Katherine Vukadin

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Welching On Public Pension Promises An Option For Illinois? An Analysis Of Article Xiii, Section 5 Of Illinois Constitution, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 167 (2014), Eric Madiar

UIC Law Review

This Article reviews not only the Pension Clause’s language and origins, but also the constitutional convention debates discussing it, and relevant court decisions construing the provision. The Article also evaluates the arguments made by legal commentators on behalf of particular stakeholders about whether the Clause allows the legislature to cut the pension benefits of current public employees and retirees as well as other related issues. The Article concludes that the General Assembly cannot unilaterally cut the pension benefits of current employees or retirees as a means to reduce the State’s existing pension liabilities based on the Clause’s plain language, the …

Putting Retirement At Risk: Has Financial Risk Exposure Grown More Quickly For Older Households Than Younger Ones?, Christian Weller, Sara Bernardo

Gerontology Institute Publications

Financial markets have been characterized by boom and bust cycles since the 1980s, while the responsibility for managing retirement wealth has increasingly shifted onto individual households at the same time. Policymakers and experts have expressed concern over rising risk exposure among older households, who appear to be increasingly exposed to the growing financial risks just as they near retirement. We consider household data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances from 1989 to 2010 to analyze the correlation between age and risk exposure. We test if older households’ risk exposure has indeed grown over time, if it has increased …

Privatizing Railroad Retirement, Steven A. Sass

Upjohn Press

Sass discusses the evolution of the U.S. Railroad Retirement System and whether its ability to invest its assets in private equities offers any lessons for Social Security.

Social Security And Pension Reform: International Perspectives, Marek Szczepański Editor, John A. Turner Editor

Upjohn Press

Countries around the world are reforming their social security and pension systems. International studies often focus on social security reforms in Europe and North America, and may include Latin America. Reforms, however, are also occurring in Asia and Africa, and include reforms of voluntary and employer-provided pensions as well as social security programs. This book discusses both social security and employer-provided pension reforms, as well as reforms in most regions of the world.

A Reflection On Erisa Claims Administration And The Exhaustion Requirement, James A. Wooten

Journal Articles

This essay, prepared in connection with the Drexel Law Review Symposium, ERISA at 40: What Were They Thinking?, examines ERISA’s regime for administering benefit claims and, in particular, the requirement that participants exhaust their plan’s review procedures before filing suit to recover benefits. Like other key elements of ERISA’s claims regime, the exhaustion requirement is a judicial creation that is not articulated in ERISA’s text. Interestingly, former congressional staffers who attended the Symposium said they assumed participants would be required to exhaust plan review procedures but failed to include such a requirement in the legislation. After reviewing the development of …

Increasing Coverage In Today’S Private Retirement System, Regina T. Jefferson

Scholarly Articles

Part I of this Reflection describes and critiques the effective-ness of the existing nondiscrimination standards for encouraging in-creased coverage in the private retirement system. Part II examines current trends with respect to various segments of the working population and concludes that existing pension law and policies are providing inadequate retirement benefits to low- and middle-income workers participating in 401(k) plans. Part III proposes the following three recommendations for increasing participation rates in the current pension climate: (1) mandatory education programs for all 401(k) plans; (2) mandatory automatic features in 401(k) plans; and (3) an additional tax incentive to encourage greater …

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 …