Retirement Security Law Commons^™

First Rock To The West, Straight On 'Til Morning: Westrock Draws Potential Roadmap To Substantive Challenges Of Erisa Rehabilitation Plans Under Section 1132, Michael Berthiaume

Mercer Law Review

Since its enactment, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) has confused and frustrated practitioners, businesspeople, and citizens alike. This convoluted statute encompassing over 1,000 pages has become increasingly more difficult through several amendments as new Congresses continue to patch the statute and "kick the can" of retirement benefits to later sessions.

In WestRock RKT Co. v. Pace Industry Union Management Fund, WestRock RKT Company (WestRock), a contributing employer, brought an action against Pace Industry Union Management Fund (The Fund) arguing a violation under ERISA, which sets minimum standards for pension plans in private industries. WestRock pursued this action …

A Lesson From Goodfellas: Why Current Illinois Consideration Based Pension Reform Proposals Still Fail, Lari A. Dierks

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

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.

The Real Reason The Investor Class Hates Pensions, David H. Webber

Shorter Faculty Works

No issue in America today better illustrates the divergent interests of working Americans and the 1 percent than pension reform. Substantial empirical evidence shows that America’s favored retirement vehicle — the 401(k), recently renounced by its own inventors — is grossly inadequate and will leave tens of millions of Americans with insufficient retirement assets. And yet states and cities are busy converting traditional pensions into these failing 401(k)s or equivalents, to the great benefit of money managers and the finance class.

How Special Is The Special Timing Rule? Analyzing The Timing Of Fica Taxation In Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans, Alan J. Ponce

Georgia State University Law Review

Many employers offer nonqualified deferred compensation plans as a benefit to select employees, and those plans allow the employees to prepare for retirement in a tax-efficient manner. For employers,designing and administering such plans in compliance with federal law represents a paramount concern in order to achieve the tax advantages such plans entail. However, for these employers, there remains an inherent ambiguity in the tax code regarding how and when employers should withhold Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes—that is, Social Security and Medicare taxes—on deferred compensation in nonqualified retirement plans.

Tax regulations provide two distinct methods for withholding FICA taxes …

Untrustworthy: Erisa’S Eroded Fiduciary Law, Peter J. Wiedenbeck

William & Mary Law Review

The trust law analogy has come to dominate judicial thinking about employee benefit plans. Yet despite its rise to rhetorical prominence, ERISA fiduciary law has been dramatically transformed by a series of uncoordinated, low-visibility judicial decisions on multiple fronts. These apparently unconnected case law developments reveal a startling pattern of mutually reinforcing restrictions on ERISA’s protection of pension and welfare benefits. This study chronicles ERISA’s trust law turn to expose how untrustworthy workers’ benefit safeguards have become. Both the scope and the intensity of fiduciary oversight have been radically pruned back in the courts. Notwithstanding the congressional declaration that attempts …

Promoting Retirement Security For Low-Income Workers In Illinois: An Analysis And Lessons For Other States, Philip C. Aka, Chidera V. Oku, Murna Habila

Akron Law Review

This Article makes suggestions for promoting retirement security among low-income workers in Illinois with pointed lessons for workers in other U.S. states. Adapting a framework from a previous study by the principal author, the Article portrays retirement preparedness for low-income workers in Illinois as a function of changes in Social Security, employer-sponsored pensions, and personal assets—the famed “three-legged stool” of retirement income—synchronized with reduction of disparities between socioeconomic groups in education, healthcare, and housing. Many studies on retirement security focus excessively on the national level sometimes at the expense of the subnational phenomena that complicate retirement security and increase the …

Privacy Of Information And Dna Testing Kits, Shanna Raye Mason

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In modern times, consumers desire for more control over their own health and healthcare. With this growing interest of control, direct to consumer DNA testing kits have never been more popular. However, many consumers are unaware of the potential privacy concerns associated with such use. This comment examines the popularity and privacy risks that are likely unknown to the individual consumer. This comment also addresses the shortcomings of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as well as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) in regard to protecting individual’s genetic information from misuse. This comment …

“Let Them Eat Cake”: Examining United States Retirement Savings Policy Through The Lens Of International Human Rights Principles, Regina T. Jefferson

Scholarly Articles

This article uses an international human rights framework to analyze and critique the effectiveness of the United States' retirement system and its underlying policies. The article challenges the ongoing pension reform debate to include considerations outside traditional economic theory, such as income inequality, the dignity of the elderly, and the irreducible mutuality of people. While a human rights analysis will not yield a precise policy prescription for the retirement savings crisis, it will serve as an additional framework within which the government's economic and social policies regarding the treatment of the elderly can be evaluated, expanding the focus and range …