Workforce Bulletin

The recent Seventh Circuit decision in Halperin v. Richards provides a reminder to ERISA fiduciaries who are also corporate officers (frequently referred to as “dual-hat officers”) that they can be held liable under both ERISA and state tort law for the same underlying acts.

When paper company Appvion Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2017, the liquidation plan granted Appvion’s creditors the right to pursue state law tort claims against former Appvion executives.  Halperin v. Richards concerned state law claims raised by certain creditors against former Appvion executives ...

On October 30, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) adopted the Final Rule amending the Investment Duties DOL Regulation, §2550.404a-1, which governs the obligations of ERISA fiduciaries when selecting investments for ERISA plans.  The Final Rule made several changes to the June 2020 Proposed Rule, which proposed to define the duties of fiduciaries when considering investments that promote environmental, social, and corporate governance goals (ESG investments).  As reported here, DOL received extensive and largely negative comments to the Proposed Rule and most of the ...

Today, Law360 published our article “Considering Best Data Practices for ERISA Fiduciaries.” (Download the full article in PDF format.)

In this article, we outline steps that ERISA plan fiduciaries can take to develop a policy concerning protection of plan data and prudent selection and monitoring of plan service providers who handle PII.  Benefit plan service providers, including technology-based outsourcing companies, should also consider these important guidelines and implement the appropriate safeguards to protect against infringement of plan and participant ...