Plans, Perks & Pay | Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Blog

Illinois passed the Consumer Coverage Disclosure Act (CCDA) in 2021. In a nutshell, the CCDA requires all employers to send employees a notice comparing their health benefits to a list of the state of Illinois’ Essential Health Benefits (EHBs). Depending on the size of the employer and how the law is interpreted, the civil penalties for non-compliance could run anywhere from a nuisance fee to astronomically high.

At the beginning of this year, we wrote about changing standards applicable to audits of financial statements of employee benefit plans subject to ERISA. Specifically, we explained that the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) issued new standards for what are currently known as “limited-scope audits.” Initially, the changed audit standards were effective for plan years ending on or after December 15, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the AICPA delayed the implementation of the standards to audits of plan years ending on or after December 15, 2021. We want to remind plan sponsors of employee benefit plans required to include an auditor’s report as part an annual Form 5500 filing that the changed audit standards create new responsibilities for plan sponsors in 2022.

In 2018, the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) changed the audit standards applicable to audits of financial statements of employee benefit plans subject to ERISA. These standards impact what is currently known as “limited-scope audits.” Initially, the new standards were to apply to audits of plan years ending on or after December 15, 2020, which means they would apply to 2020 plan year audits performed in 2021. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AICPA changed the effective date of the standards to plan years ending after December 15, 2021, extending the implementation of the standards for one year. Plan sponsors of plans subject to ERISA should be aware of the new responsibilities the standards impose on auditors, as these changes also indirectly create new responsibilities for plan sponsors.

Greensfelder Officer Amy Blaisdell recently co-authored an article in For the Defense, a publication of the Defense Research Institute (DRI), about lessons employers should keep in mind when defending against disability benefits claims that lack objective medical evidence. The article, titled “Objective Versus Subjective Evidence in the ERISA Claims-Handling Process,” was published in the August 2020 edition.

A U.S. Court of Appeals determined that arbitration on an individual basis is the proper forum for a participant’s claim that Charles Schwab breached its fiduciary duties and engaged in prohibited transaction under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) by holding proprietary funds in its 401(k) plan.

On Friday, June 28, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a hotly debated ERISA topic: standing to bring breach of fiduciary duty claims in defined benefit plans. The court will review Thole v. U.S. Bank, Nat’l Ass’n, 873 F.3d 617, 628 (8th Cir. 2017), which the Eighth Circuit decided on statutory standing grounds. In accepting the case, the Supreme Court also certified the additional issue of whether the defined benefit plan participants have demonstrated Article III standing.

After more than two years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its last decision^* in a case involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the court’s next term looks to be flush with ERISA issues. On June 10, 2019, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in a Ninth Circuit case addressing the “actual knowledge” standard in the statute of limitations for fiduciary breaches. Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee, v. Sulyma, No. 18-1116.  The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in two ERISA cases in as many weeks, and it seems likely the court may grant review in at least one other case. Below is a summary of the cases that are or may be in front of the Supreme Court in the coming term.

In April 2018, New York University was the first university to take to trial a case claiming it violated its ERISA fiduciary duties. And on July 31, 2018, it became the first university to win. Sacerdote v. New York Univ., No. 16-CV-6284 (KBF), 2018 WL 3629598 (S.D.N.Y. July 31, 2018).

More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against prestigious colleges and universities claiming that they violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) in the operation of their Code Section 403(b) plans. Within the last year, University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern each won dismissal of their cases, and the University of Chicago settled its claims for $6.5 million. But NYU’s victory was the first to come after a trial, and the court’s finding of facts and conclusions of law provide lessons for ERISA fiduciaries — and not just those embroiled in their own fee cases.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s opinion that the University of Southern California could not compel arbitration of ERISA claims brought by its employees despite the fact that the parties entered into a broad arbitration agreement. Munro v. University of Southern California, No. 17-55550 (July 24, 2018). The reason? The agreement did not extend to claims brought on behalf of the employees’ retirement plan.

As discussed below, even though a church plan was operated in accordance with ERISA and the plan sponsor may have thought it was required to do so, as long as no 410(d) election was made, it is “no harm, no foul” for the plan’s status as a church plan.