Understanding Employee Benefits and key developments in the employee benefits field and items of interest to our clients. MORE

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Employers know that they must prepare and distribute a summary plan description (SPD) for their ERISA benefit plans, including retirement benefits, health insurance, life insurance and disability insurance. Because of the length of such documents, employers may prefer to distribute the documents electronically. Some would like simply to post the SPDs to a company intranet.…

Many employers offer group term life insurance, including supplemental life. Often an employee who wants to buy coverage above a particular level after an initial open enrollment period must show evidence of insurability. This requirement is present to protect the plan from adverse selection so that employees do not wait until they develop a medical…

In an opinion released earlier this month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a self-insured health plan was not entitled to a refund of the nearly $1.7 million it paid to two Wisconsin hospitals for treatment administered to a participant’s newborn child, despite the plan’s ultimately concluding the newborn…

I blogged recently about an ERISA case involving an executive severance plan where the executive sued claiming that his employment termination was effective before the first anniversary of a change in control, thereby entitling him to severance benefits under the plan. The court had concluded that the severance occurred after the first anniversary but allowed …

It is not uncommon for employers to have executive severance plans that pay substantial severance if an executive loses employment in connection with a change in control. In a recent federal district court decision, a former chief executive officer sued an employer for $700,000 claimed to be owed as severance as a result of …

Over the years we have seen some employers, particularly small employers, choose to provide health coverage to their employees by paying all or part of the premium for individual insurance policies that the employees have obtained. Under an old IRS revenue ruling, Rev. Rul. 61-146, that type of premium subsidy could be provided on a …

I blogged recently about a decision from a federal district court in Virginia (Eastern Distrct) involving a widow who sought to recover life insurance benefits from her late husband’s employer-sponsored group term life insurance plan. The employer had improperly allowed the late husband to enroll in the plan.  The court had found on summary judgment …