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December 12, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Dec. 11, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order seeking to protect investors and pensions from politicized advice from foreign-owned proxy advisers.
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December 11, 2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two days after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a pro se litigant’s petitions for writs of mandamus in a dispute involving long-term disability (LTD) benefits, an Ohio federal judge on Dec. 10 issued an amended ruling designating him a vexatious litigant, dismissing his case without prejudice and imposing sanctions including a $1,500 penalty and a three-part filing restriction, highlighting “his repeated failure to appear” and “his (apparently ongoing) use of AI resulting in fabricated citations.”
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December 11, 2025
TAMPA, Fla. — Saying that the “parties agree to limit the scope of discovery to the issues identified in” Cerrito v. Liberty Life Assurance Co., a Florida federal magistrate judge granted a long-term disability (LTD) claimant’s request for discovery outside the administrative record in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit.
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December 10, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying that now is the time for the U.S. Supreme Court to address a question it has thrice declined to consider — and acknowledging that the position it now takes represents a change from its historical one — the U.S. government on Dec. 9 filed an amicus curiae brief urging the high court to grant a certiorari petition that asks whether “burden-shifting applies to the element of causation under” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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December 10, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Dec. 9 amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a certiorari petition, the U.S. government opines that there were two significant errors in the challenged decision concerning the role benchmarks play in pleading Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims; the 2-1 ruling by a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived a putative class action over a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs).
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December 10, 2025
SAN FRANCISCO — Finding that “the reversal of the determination of denial and the remand for consideration with a vocational analysis constitutes a sufficient degree of success to warrant attorney’s fees” in a case challenging termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation standard, a California federal magistrate judge awarded just half of the nearly $185,000 requested for attorney fees and declined to amend the judgment to award the benefits pending the determination on remand.
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December 09, 2025
PASADENA, Calif. — Citing a May 2024 decision, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished memorandum disposition upholding dismissal of California state law claims against a health insurance administrator on the grounds that the claims were preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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December 09, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished per curiam order, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment against a former grocery worker who alleged that her employment and benefits were improperly terminated to keep her from receiving benefits under a work injury plan and a return-to-work program that were governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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December 09, 2025
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge on Dec. 8 granted preliminary approval of a settlement under which Wells Fargo & Co. would pay $84 million to resolve a class action against it and two other defendants; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenges how Wells Fargo used dividends of its preferred stock held in its 401(k)’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fund.
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December 08, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — On the heels of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s appellant brief in its interlocutory appeal of a ruling that retirees had standing to file a putative class lawsuit that is part of a much-watched string of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Dec. 5 asked the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for extra time to decide whether to file an amicus curiae brief; among other things, the retirees generally allege that the use of offshore captive reinsurers makes the insurers that are responsible to pay annuities because of the PRTs more likely to fall short of their obligations.
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December 05, 2025
BOSTON — A claimant who unsuccessfully challenged a determination that she wasn’t entitled to long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation standard despite being approved for Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) has dropped her appeal in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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December 05, 2025
ATLANTA — Saying in an unpublished per curiam opinion that the multiple physician reviews that a long-term disability (LTD) insurer obtained and the claimant’s “social media activity” and medical records constituted substantial evidence for terminating benefits under a group insurance policy’s any-occupation definition of disability, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the insurer.
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December 05, 2025
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear Dec. 9 oral argument in an appeal where retirement plan participants who filed an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over proprietary target date funds (TDFs) lost on all counts following a bench trial; among other things, the participants seek vacatur of an order taxing them with nearly $94,000 in costs.
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December 04, 2025
CHICAGO — Citing the plaintiff’s failure “to identify a uniform sample” among his proposed comparator stable value funds (SVFs), an Illinois federal judge on Dec. 3 dismissed a putative class complaint concerning an allegedly underperforming SVF with leave to amend.
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December 04, 2025
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Dec. 3 granted final approval to a class settlement with a present value of $7 million that resolves a suit challenging the use of allegedly outdated mortality assumptions to calculate annuities for married pension plan participants; as requested, the judge also awarded a third of that total for attorney fees.
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December 04, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has granted a request by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to dismiss consolidated appeals the agency filed under the Biden administration; the appeals challenged July 2024 rulings that imposed a nationwide stay of the effective date of a 2024 DOL Retirement Security Rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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December 03, 2025
CINCINNATI — Saying in part that each of the “alleged breaches of duty rests entirely upon what” a health insurance plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “does (or does not) say,” the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 2 affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit that featured state law claims it agreed were completely preempted.
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December 03, 2025
NEW YORK — Granting three $25,000 case contribution awards over the defendants’ opposition, a New York federal judge on Dec. 2 gave final approval to a class settlement that was struck after a rare Employee Retirement Income Security Act jury trial in a challenge to the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan; the deal includes a $48.5 million payment that with interest now totals $49,539,537, and class counsel were awarded a third of that total for attorney fees as requested.
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December 03, 2025
BALTIMORE — Addressing three expert challenges in a putative class action concerning NFL disability benefits, a Maryland federal magistrate judge excluded one expert in full and one in part and declined to exclude the third.
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December 01, 2025
CAMDEN, N.J. — Applying the reasoning of a Minnesota federal judge who was confronted with a similar putative class case and concluding that the plaintiffs lack standing, a New Jersey federal judge issued an unpublished opinion on Nov. 26 in which he again granted partial dismissal with leave to amend in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duty suit focused on a health plan’s pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) and prescription drug benefits.
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November 26, 2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A $1,995,000 class settlement won final approval on Nov. 25 in a case that had challenged the use of forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions to offset the plan sponsor’s future matching contributions, with a California federal judge granting the requested $665,000 award for attorney fees and costs but directing that 10% of the fees be retained by the settlement administrator pending a determination “that the settlement distribution process has been completed.”
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November 26, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — Days after a flurry of filings by other parties and amici curiae, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) moved to dismiss consolidated appeals challenging July 2024 rulings that imposed a nationwide stay of the effective date of a 2024 DOL Retirement Security Rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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November 25, 2025
As the wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions continues to swell, here’s a look at where things stand in nine appeals of rulings dismissing putative class cases; one highlight is that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is considering filing a second amicus curiae brief.
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November 25, 2025
PASADENA, Calif. — Affirming dismissal of a suit against a health insurer in a Nov. 24 unpublished memorandum disposition, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said that because the claims of the drug and alcohol treatment provider both reference “and have an impermissible connection with” a plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the claims “are therefore preempted by ERISA.”
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November 21, 2025
By Jamie O’Neill and Abigail Damsky