Does this sound familiar to you? My experience with ERISA was limited pretty much to preemption. It is a defense to certain insurance bad faith claims. If the claim is preempted by ERISA, then the court cannot hear it. That was pretty much the sum total of my knowledge of ERISA.
Plus one other thing: The standard (or so I thought) for ERISA conduct was fiduciary. To be liable under ERISA (again, or so I thought) the defendant had to breach fiduciary obligations imposed under ERISA.
This morning I learned that there is a lot more to know about ERISA, including the limits of its fiduciary standards. See this instructive column, which presents an easily understandable outline of many issues involved in ERISA, by Gretchen Morgenson, "When Your 401(k) is Better For Your Employer" (New York Times Online Sunday, June 5, 2016; posted Friday, June 3, 2016).
Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2016 by Dennis J. Wall, author of Litigation and Prevention of Insurer Bad Faith (3d ed. Thomson Reuters West in 2 Volumes, with Supplements). You are invited to visit the author's website here. All rights reserved.
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