Understanding Employee Benefits
Understanding Employee Benefits and key developments in the employee benefits field and items of interest to our clients. MORE
Employers are generally aware that medical plans are subject to continuation coverage under the federal law known as COBRA. They may forget that COBRA extends to all group health plans, including dental, vision and medical flexible spending account plans. A recent federal district court decision highlighted the risk to employers who forget those facts.
The …
Small employers (those who normally employ fewer than 20 full-time equivalent employees during the preceding year) are not subject to health care continuation requirements under the law known as “COBRA.” (Some states have their own “mini-COBRA” laws; this post is speaking only about the federal requirements.) A recent district court decision from Ohio considered the …
I blogged earlier in the year about a decision in which a district court concluded that various related companies were part of a controlled group of trades or businesses and therefore liable for the withdrawal liability of one of the companies. In that case, the court noted that to be a trade or business the …
A standard part of an executive compensation package can be participation in a nonqualified deferred compensation plan. This is a plan not subject to tax code limitations on qualified retirement plans and not subject to many provisions of ERISA, including the requirement that plan assets be set aside in a trust, protected from company creditors. …
Pactiv Corporation sponsored a severance plan subject to ERISA. The plan required an employee to sign a separation agreement and release in a “form acceptable to the company” in order for the employee to be entitled to a payment under the plan. The severance plan itself did not contain a no compete provision. When an …
Although our main office is in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we have clients located in other parts of the country, and ourselves have an office in Washington, D.C. Some of our clients have employees who have been hard hit by Hurricane Sandy. Employers want to help their employees, and employees not affected by the hurricane want to …
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 added Section 401(a)(35) to the Internal Revenue Code generally effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 2006. That section provides in general that defined contribution retirement plans that hold employer securities that are publicly traded must give plan participants the right to diversify their amounts out of the …
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on Multiple Employer Plans, encouraging the federal agencies that regulate the plans to collect data and coordinate oversight of them. The report is interesting reading for those wanting more information about these types of plans.
A recent Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision considered the situation of a participant covered under a self‑funded ERISA plan who sustained injuries in a slip and fall accident. The plan paid health benefits for that accident. The participant also obtained compensation by settling a civil lawsuit. Like many self‑funded medical plans, this plan required …
A recent Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision concluded that severance pay provided to employees as a result of layoff or discontinuance of a plant, operations or other similar condition is exempt from FICA taxes. According to the court of appeals, it does not matter whether the severance is paid in a lump sum or …
