Employee Benefits

The newsletter of the ISBA’s Section on Employee Benefits

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2005 Articles

America’s Health Insurance Plans Regulatory Brief-Update on Erie County: District court bars publication of EEOC regulation June 2005 Publication of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC's) long-awaited final regulation permitting the coordination of retiree health benefits with Medicare or state-sponsored retiree health benefits has been barred by a recent decision of the U.S. Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Automatic rollover rules By Richard F. Skweres March 2005 Many retirement plans have rules that provide for automatic distributions to terminated participants or beneficiaries when the benefits are less than $5,000.
Federal caselaw update By David R. Shannon June 2005 The National Pension Lawyers Network, which is administered by the Pension Action Center at the University of Massachusetts (Gerontology Institute), provides referrals to employee benefits lawyers.
Federal caselaw update By David R. Shannon March 2005 "Sandbagging": LTD claimant was not provided access to independent medical examiner's report, which served as basis of denial of benefits, until after plan's decision.
Impact of bankruptcy reform legislation on qualified retirement savings plan exclusions/exemptions By Mark A. Bogdanowicz June 2005 This is an overview of the state of the law as to exemptions covering employee benefits under the Bankruptcy Code of 1978 and how these provisions will be affected under the recent bankruptcy reform legislation, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 ("BAPCA").1
Interpreting the IRS guidance issued under Code Section 409A affecting nonqualified deferred compensation plans By Mary Samsa, Joyce Meyer, & Dave Wolfe March 2005 With the release of IRS Notice 2005-1, nonqualified deferred compensation plan sponsors have the first set of guidance regarding amendments needed to comply with new Code Section 409A.
John Erlenborn (1927-2005): Illinois Congressman known as “Father of ERISA” By Gerald D. Skoning December 2005 Former U.S. Rep., John Erlenborn, 78, who represented part of DuPage County in Congress from 1965 to 1985 in a career distinguished by his expertise in labor and pension issues, died on October 30, 2005, in his Virginia home.
Regulatory update: Illinois December 2005 Does ERISA preempt this regulation? In Nickola v. CNA Group Life Assurance Co., 2005 WL 1910905 (N.D. Ill. 8/5/2005), the court declined to address the preemption issue (as to the same proposed regulation) because even if the arbitrary and capricious standard applied, “Defendant’s process and analysis in terminating Plaintiff’s long-term disability benefits is so defective that it fails arbitrary and capricious review.”
Senate and House DB funding reform alternatives By Michael Barry & Brian Donohue September 2005 (Notice to librarians: The following issues were published in Volume 23 of this newsletter during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005: September, No. 1; December, No. 2; March, No. 3; June, No. 4).