Retirement Security Law Commons^™

Anastasoff V. United States And Appeals In Veterans' Cases, Charles G. Mills

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

Many cases regarding veterans' benefits are heard in the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit has a practice of issuing one sentence orders in some cases. This practice benefits veterans by allowing decisions adverse to veterans to be made without creating precedential value. Removing the practice of unpublished opinions in the Federal Circuit would extinguish this benefit.

Cross-Testing, Nondiscrimination, And New Comparability: A Rejoinder To Mr. Orszag And Professor Stein, Edward A. Zelinsky

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Saving, Pamela Perun

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nor Rhyme Nor Reason: Simplifying Defined Contribution Plans, David A. Pratt

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Striking A Balance In The Cash Balance Plan Debate, Regina T. Jefferson

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cross-Tested Defined Contribution Plans: A Response To Professor Zelinsky, Peter Orszag, Norman Stein

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Cross-Testing A Mistake? Cash Balance Plans, New Comparability Formulas, And The Incoherence Of The Nondiscrimination Norm, Edward A. Zelinsky

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Cash Balance Controversy Revisited: Age Discrimination And Fidelity To Statutory Text, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

No abstract provided.

Domestic Partnership And Erisa Preemption, Jeffrey G. Sherman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Privatization: Not The Answer For Social Security Reform, Regina T. Jefferson

Scholarly Articles

This Article analyzes the impact of privatization on the existing Social Security program. Part I describes the structure and status of the current Social Security program Part II describes the principal elements of Social Security reform proposals. Part III critiques the private retirement system and its reliance on individual accounts as primary retirement savings vehicles, and demonstrates why this model is inappropriate as a replacement for the existing Social Security program. Part IV explores the impact of privatization on the public welfare function of Social Security and examines some of the weaknesses in many of the privatization proposals. The Article …

Does A Life Insurance Subtrust Create A Prohibited Assignment Within A Qualified Plan?, 34 J. Marshall L. Rev. 727 (2001), Stephen Brooks

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Partial Privatization Of Social Security Upon Private Pensions, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Social Security does not provide retirement income in a vacuum. Rather, commentators often refer to our national retirement income system as a three legged stool, with Social Security representing one of the legs and employer sponsored pension plans and individual savings representing the other two legs. Because changes in one leg of the stool are likely to have a direct impact on the other two legs, policymakers must not consider Social Security changes in isolation, but should take account of their effect on employer-sponsored pensions and individual savings. This Article analyzes how one of the most popular proposals, partial privatization, …

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

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Principally because of increasing life expectancy and the fact that the baby boom generation is reaching retirement age and is followed by a much smaller generation, the American social security system is facing a long-term funding deficit. The Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Trust Funds predicts that unless corrective action is taken, social security benefits will exceed dedicated tax revenues by the year 2016, and the social security system will become insolvent, that is, unable to pay benefits in full, by the year 2038.

The United States is not alone in facing these circumstances. …

"The Most Glorious Story Of Failure In The Business": The Studebaker-Packard Corporation And The Origins Of Erisa, James A. Wooten

Journal Articles

The Studebaker-Packard Corporation occupies a distinctive place in the lore of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. No single event is more closely associated with ERISA than the shutdown of the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana. Soon after the plant closed in December 1963, Studebaker terminated the retirement plan for hourly workers, and the plan defaulted on its obligations. The plight of Studebaker employees quickly emerged as a symbol of the need for pension reform. This article examines the history of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation to understand why and how the shutdown came to play a role in …

Ensuring Health And Income Security For An Aging Workforce, Peter Budetti Editor, Richard V. Burkhauser Editor, Janice M. Gregory Editor, H. Allan Hunt Editor

Upjohn Press

The chapters explore implications of an aging workforce for a number of social programs in the coming decades, and point to the critical policy issues we must face when growing numbers of older workers begin to strain the capacity of those programs.

How Does Dipping Into Your Pension Affect Your Retirement Wealth?, Gary V. Engelhardt

Center for Policy Research

Although pensions, both public and private, are intended to provide income during retirement, a growing number of American workers receive part or all their employer-provided pensions in the form of a cash settlement, called a lump-sum distribution, when they change jobs. They have many choices of what to do with that money: for example, they can roll it over into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), spend the money or pay or debt, transfer it to the pension plan of a new employer, or even leave the money with the old employer's pension plan. Policymakers are concerned that workers who spend …

Settlements And Waivers Affecting Pension Benefits Under Erisa, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

Waivers affecting pension benefits may be entered into as part of a controversy (for example, a settlement agreement) or in isolation (for example, a disclaimer). Under current law, however, it is unclear how these waivers fit within the protections of ERISA, particularly the antialienation rule. Courts have generally honored settlement agreements so long as they are procedurally fair to participants. However, the antialienation rule looms in the background. The IRS and Treasury, in contrast, have focused on waivers outside the settlement context, prohibiting participants from making them but allowing beneficiaries to do so if the waiver satisfies gift-tax rules for …

Reconciling The Erisa Fiduciary's Dual Responsibilities: The Third Circuit Adopts A Heightened Standard Of Review In Pinto V. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co., Monica M. Lawrence

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Glass Slipper: Reflections On The Self-Employment Tax, Patricia E. Dilley

UF Law Faculty Publications

Lawmakers and their staffs, in drafting tax legislation, often resemble Prince Charming looking for Cinderella with that glass slipper in hand -- rather than start from scratch and draft a completely new tax provision. It is frequently easier, faster, and more reassuring to taxpayers and tax practitioners to use an existing statute or approach and simply amend it slightly to make it fit the need of the new provision. However, problems can arise from this approach.

In the original Grimm Brothers' version of the Cinderella story, for example, the wicked stepsisters were each so anxious to be the chosen one …

Taking Public Rights Private: The Rhetoric And Reality Of Social Security Privatization, Patricia E. Dilley

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the foundations of the Social Security privatization debate. What is frequently portrayed as a numbers problem to which a "correct" answer can be found is in fact an ideological and political argument about wealth building versus direct income support and about the reality and security of public entitlement as opposed to private property rights. Efforts to use the idea of private property as the basis of rights in the context of the Social Security system and other non-retirement social welfare programs have proven problematic. This Article suggests that Social Security, far from being a quaint, retrograde souvenir …

The Minimum Distribution Rules And Their Critical Role In Controlling The Floodgates Of Qualified Plan Wealth, Jay A. Soled, Bruce A. Wolk

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Social Security Reform: Risks, Returns, And Race, Dorothy A. Brown, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

UF Law Faculty Publications

The debate over social security reform has far-reaching implications for the economic well-being of blacks and other minority groups. In this article, we examine how blacks have fared under the existing system, and then consider the likely consequences of moving toward a privatized system. Specifically, we consider the claim, recently advanced by some privatizers, that blacks receive an especially "bad deal" under the existing system and would be better off under a privatized system. We find that, for blacks as a group, this claim tends to overstate both the shortcomings of the existing system and the advantages of privatization. Furthermore, …

Partial Privatization Of Social Security: Assessing Its Effect On Women, Minorities, And Lower-Income Workers, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Once viewed as the “third rail” of politics, Social Security appears to be moving inexorably toward reform. In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Clinton proclaimed strengthening Social Security a high priority and called for bipartisan forums on Social Security reform to be held throughout the United States. Similarly, following the 1998 November elections, congressional leaders expressed commitment to “saving Society Security,” and House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer renewed his commitment to bipartisan reform of Social Security as recently as December 8, 1999 in a letter to President Clinton. Congressional hearings on reform proposals are ubiquitous, …

Piercing The Corporate Veil To Recover Pension Payments: It's Time To Address The Issue, 33 J. Marshall L. Rev. 497 (2000), Nella Disanto

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employer Sponsored Health Benefit Plans Under Erisa After Pegram V. Herdrich: The Fiduciary Duty Argument And Mixed Eligibility Versus Treatment Decisions, Jack E. Karns

Journal of Law and Health

Accordingly, this Article is a rebuttal to the Supreme Court's opinion in Pegram v. Herdrich on the strength of two primary arguments. First, the Seventh Circuit's rationale was on-point and extremely sound in concluding that HMOs do stand as trustees as envisioned by the ESBP and cannot offer kickback payments to physicians simply to increase shareholder wealth at the expense of patient health and welfare. This was a textbook example of breach of fiduciary duty given the medical trust relationship between physician and patient. Had the HMO offered a hedge fund option using securities from firms other than itself, there …

Redistribution Under The Current Social Security System, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Arguably the most successful program of the modern welfare state, Social Security has been enormously successful in lifting the elderly out of poverty. Thirty years ago, almost 30% of the elderly were in poverty, a poverty rate that was more than twice as high as the rate for the population as a whole. Today, in contrast, only about 12% of the elderly are subject to poverty, a rate that is about the same as the rest of the adult population.

This Article describes how the current system redistributes income. The Article does not attempt to develop a mathematical model to …

Rico Rights For Erisa Wrongs: Can Plaintiffs Find Relief Despite Erisa Preemption Of State-Law Claims?, Alan R. Ross

Washington Law Review

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) preempts state laws that relate to employee benefit plans and allows only equitable relief for those who are injured by decisions of ERISA plan administrators. Even though the interpretation of ERISA's preemptive power has changed since 1974, ERISA still poses a significant challenge to plaintiffs in actions for damages against plan administrators. This Comment suggests that another federal law, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is explicitly not preempted by ERISA, may provide relief. The challenges that a plaintiff bringing an action against plan administrators may face include …

Cash Balance Plans: They Work For Employers But Do They Work For Employees?, 34 J. Marshall L. Rev. 345 (2000), Deana Saxinger

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employees Provident Fund : A Study On The Adequacy Of Benefits Provided To Its Members, Devadoss Doraisamy

Student Works (2000-2009)

The purpose of this study is to examine the adequacy of benefits provided by the Employees Provident Fund to its members. A sample of 21,722 members who have attained the age of 54 years and actively contributing to the fund were selected for the study. The study shows that the old age retirement benefit scheme provided by the Employees Provident Fund to its members is grossly inadequate and does not meet to the standard established by the I LO convention No.102 of 1952 on replacement income retirees. The study concludes that the Employees Provident Fund should review the numerous pre …

The "Original Intent" Of The Federal Tax Treatment Of Private Pension Plans, James A. Wooten

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.