Articles Discussing Retiree Benefits.

In a significant ruling on February 5, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed the enforceability of an arbitration provision in an expired collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the case of Xerox Corporation v. Local 14A, Rochester Regional Joint Board, Xerographic Division Workers United. The court’s

The Supreme Court of the United States recently heard oral arguments in a case that could broadly impact employers’ retiree benefits and liability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The court will decide whether retirees can sue for disability discrimination because of changes to retiree benefit plans.

The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear a case that will decide whether retirees can sue for disability discrimination because of changes to retiree benefit plans.

An employer can contest a withdrawal liability assessment and ultimately prevail. That is the moral of Bulk Transport Corp. v. Teamsters Union No. 142 Pension Fund, No. 23-1563 (7th Cir. Mar. 22, 2024).

An enduring wave of novel class actions challenging the actuarial assumptions used to calculate certain pension benefits has prompted many sponsors of defined benefit pension plans to evaluate their plan’s terms for calculation various forms of benefits. In total, nearly 30 cases have been filed to date. Several of these suits are against manufacturers.

Beginning January 1, 2024, employers will be required to allow Long-term, part-time (LTPT) employees to make deferral contributions to qualified retirement plans that contain cash or deferred arrangements. Deferrals for LTPT employees are a departure from prior eligibility conditions rules that allowed plans to require participants to reach age twenty-one

On November 1, 2023, the 2024 calendar year cost-of-living adjustments to the contribution and compensation limits for tax-qualified retirement plans were released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Notice 2023-75.

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) was enacted on December 29, 2022, as a component of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. SECURE 2.0 made sweeping changes to the laws affecting qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

Mergers and acquisitions raise numerous issues, including whether to terminate or maintain a target company’s qualified retirement plan. The decision to terminate or maintain a plan involves various considerations, which can affect both employers and employees.

The Biden Administration’s prudence in selecting plan investments and exercising shareholder rights rule allows plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when selecting retirement plan investments.

In late 2022, the Department of Labor finalized a new rule titled “Prudence in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights,” largely reversing Trump-era guidance that had strictly limited the ability of plan fiduciaries to consider “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) factors in selecting retirement plan investments and generally discouraged the exercise of proxy voting. 

President Biden signed The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 in late December 2022.  The final bill included the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”).  As we reported in a prior article, SECURE 2.0 contains a host of wide-ranging provisions that impact retirement plans, plan sponsors, and plan participants.

SECURE 2.0 may cause some insecurity. However, the law’s changes to the treatment of overpayments from employer-sponsored retirement plans may replace that insecurity with relief.

After months of suspense and intrigue on whether SECURE 2.0 would make it to the finish line and become law, the U.S. Congress ended the suspense by attaching SECURE 2.0 to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 funding bill on December 23, 2022. President Biden made it official on December 29,