McDermott Will & Emery
Subscribe to McDermott Will & Emery's PostsSupreme Court Rules SPD Does Not Trump Plan Document, but Emphasizes Availability of Equitable Remedies Where Employer Misleads
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 21, 2011
Posted In Retirement Plans
by Stephen Pavlick and Nancy S. Gerrie The Supreme Court of the United States in the CIGNA decision confirms, in what may be hailed as a victory for plan sponsors, that information contained in a summary plan description does not itself constitute the “terms” of a benefit plan for purposes of filing claims for benefits. ...
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No Seventh Circuit Rehearing in Kraft ERISA “Excessive Fees” Case
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 9, 2011
Posted In Benefit Controversies, Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), Fiduciary and Investment Issues, Retirement Plans
by Chris C. Scheithauer and Joseph S. Adams As previously described in this blog earlier this year, a divided Seventh Circuit panel reversed summary judgment in favor of Kraft Foods Global, Inc. in a class action involving allegedly excessive fees in the Kraft 401(k) plan. Shortly thereafter, Kraft petitioned for rehearing of the case by...
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Illinois Civil Unions Complicated by Federal DOMA and Potential DOMA Repeal
By McDermott Will & Emery on May 31, 2011
Posted In Employment, Health and Welfare Plans
by Todd A. Solomon and Brett R. Johnson The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, which legalizes civil unions for same-sex and opposite-sex partners, takes effect on June 1, 2011. The law entitles civil union partners to all of the legal rights and obligations that opposite-sex spouses have under Illinois state law by...
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The Dodd-Frank Act’s Impact on Pension Plan Investment Options
By McDermott Will & Emery on May 25, 2011
Posted In Fiduciary and Investment Issues, Retirement Plans
by Maureen O’Brien, Karen A. Simonsen and Adrienne Walker Porter Pension plans use swaps to manage interest rate risks and other risks and to reduce volatility with respect to funding obligations. The Dodd-Frank Act established a comprehensive regulatory framework for swaps. The legislation was enacted to reduce risk, increase transparency and promote market integrity within...
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California Adopts Federal Tax Treatment of Health Coverage for Adult Children
By McDermott Will & Emery on May 23, 2011
Posted In Employment, Health and Welfare Plans
by Susan M. Nash, Amy M. Gordon, Todd A. Solomon, Raymond M. Fernando and Adrienne Walker Porter On April 7, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law California Assembly Bill 36 (AB 36). AB 36 conforms certain California income and employment tax laws to certain changes to the United States Internal Revenue Code (the Code)...
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Tax Court Disqualifies Plan for Not Adopting Required Amendments
By McDermott Will & Emery on May 11, 2011
Posted In Retirement Plans
by Nancy S. Gerrie, Stephen Pavlick and Brian A. Benko Maintaining a retirement plan’s qualified status comes with certain administrative burdens. For employers, few burdens are more onerous than required plan amendments. Throughout the year, employers are informed that they need to adopt a plan amendment because of recent changes to the law. Some amendments...
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Proposed Additional Disclosures for Qualified Default Investment Alternatives and Target Date Funds
By McDermott Will & Emery on May 5, 2011
Posted In Fiduciary and Investment Issues, Retirement Plans
by Diane M. Morgenthaler, Lisa K. Loesel and Paul J. Compernolle The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed regulations that require additional disclosures for a participant’s investment in qualified default investment alternatives (QDIAs) and target retirement date funds (TDFs). The DOL had two primary reasons for issuing these proposed regulations. First, the DOL provided...
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Repeal of Expanded Tax Information Reporting Requirements Under PPACA and Small Business Jobs Act of 2010
By McDermott Will & Emery on Apr 28, 2011
Posted In Employment
by Ira B. Mirsky and Robin L Greenhouse On April 14, 2011, President Obama signed legislation that repeals the expanded Form 1099 reporting requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. The new legislation eliminates the requirement to expand tax information reporting, beginning in 2012,...
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Recent NLRB Activity Zeroes In On Social Media Policies
By McDermott Will & Emery on Apr 20, 2011
Posted In Employment, Labor, Privacy and Data Security
by Stephen D. Erf, Heather Egan Sussman, Christopher Scheithauer and Sabrina E. Dunlap The law is not new – it’s just being applied to our newest forms of communication: Twitter, Facebook and others. Even the legal framework is relatively straightforward: Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects “concerted activities,” which include circumstances where employees...
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IRS Releases Interim Guidance on Reporting Cost of Employer-Sponsored Coverage on W-2
By McDermott Will & Emery on Mar 31, 2011
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
by Ira B. Mirsky and Maureen O’Brien On March 29, 2011, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2011-28, which provides interim guidance to employers regarding informational reporting of the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored group health plan coverage on Forms W-2. Pursuant to Notice 2010-69, this reporting is optional for all employers in connection...
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