ERISA Experts Evaluate Termination of Retiree Life Insurance Benefit

Case Overview

This case involves tens of thousands of retirees from a large company who were promised life-time life-insurance coverage through their employer in Mississippi. Despite these assurances, the company canceled this life insurance benefit for all retirees. Shortly before the cancellation took place, the company brought on new executive management that promised to cut millions of dollars in expenses, and to increase the stock price of the company back to previous highs through an extensive cost reduction program. As a component of this initiative, the company then brought in outside consultants to research whether or not cutting this insurance benefit was a viable option. It was alleged that this cancellation of retirement benefits was in breach of fiduciary duty owed to the company’s employees and retirees.

Questions to the Vocational expert and their responses

Are you able to discuss if their was a breach in fiduciary duty by the employer?

If there is a case here, it would be because the insurance benefits were a benefit at retirement and the plan was a retirement plan. A retirement plan has to have certain protections, including vesting. The decision to end the plan was probably not a decision made in a fiduciary capacity.

Are you able to discuss the role private consultants play in employee benefits?

I have been a consultant to the Pension Rights Center, the AARP, and the GAO and have been hired by such companies as Toyota and Fidelity to provide assistance on employee benefits matters, although my usual consultations are for organizations and attorneys representing participants in employee benefit plans.

About the expert

This expert is a nationally recognized authority on pension law, employee benefits and tax law. He served as counsel to the American Association of Retired Persons and as a consultant to the General Accounting Office and testified before the US Congress on pension issues. He is a former chair of the Employee Benefit Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He is chairman-elect of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation. A member of the GAO's Expert Panel on Retirement Security, he also served on the Department of Labor Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans and was a delegate at the White House Conference on Retirement Savings. He was elected secretary of the American College of Employee Benefits Council and he is currently a fellow of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a member of the Board of Advisors of the BNA Pension and Benefit Reporter and a senior policy advisor to the Pension Rights Center. He received his JD from Duke University School of Law.

E-083872

Specialties:

Vocational