Mealey's ERISA
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August 11, 2025
$6.9M Settlement Gets Final OK In ERISA Imprudence Row Over Fees And Funds
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal magistrate judge granted final approval to a $6.9 million class settlement of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit involving recordkeeping fees and proprietary target date funds (TDFs); according to retirement plan participants, the gross amount is “approximately 12% to 38% of damages” estimated by their expert.
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August 08, 2025
Extra-Record Discovery On Purported Conflict Of Interest Is Denied In LTD Row
NEWARK, N.J. — Concluding that discovery requests “are not only unjustified under the conflict of interest exception to the” Employee Retirement Income Security Act “record rule, but not proportional to the needs of this case,” a New Jersey federal magistrate judge denied a pharmacist’s request to allow discovery beyond the administrative record in her suit challenging termination of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
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August 08, 2025
Trump Signs Executive Order Regarding Private Market Investments For 401(k)s
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an Aug. 7 executive order concerning 401(k)s and other defined-contribution retirement plans, President Donald J. Trump directed reexamination of U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) “past and present guidance regarding a fiduciary’s duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 . . . in connection with making available to participants an asset allocation fund that includes investments in” private market investments and other “alternative assets.”
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August 07, 2025
Fiduciary Breach Claim Partly Survives In Long-Running Insurance Coverage Row
SAN FRANCISCO — After more than a decade of litigation that includes numerous appellate court rulings in a class action over thousands of mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims, a California federal magistrate judge ruled that part of a breach of fiduciary claim survives and exhaustion as to that remaining claim is not required or is excused.
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August 07, 2025
6th Circuit Makes First Impression Ruling On Remedy In Withdrawal Liability Row
CINCINNATI — Deciding a dispute it said involves “a matter of first impression,” the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 6 affirmed a ruling that upheld both an arbitrator’s conclusion that an actuary’s withdrawal liability estimate violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act because it was not his “best estimate” and the arbitrator’s remedy, then declined to award attorney fees for the appeal.
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August 07, 2025
Judge Upholds STD Benefits Termination Under Arbitrary And Capricious Standard
TULSA, Okla. — Rejecting an argument for de novo review, an Oklahoma federal judge upheld termination of short-term disability (STD) benefits in a case where the claimant said he was unable to work because of depression and memory loss.
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August 06, 2025
$8.2M Class Settlement Gets Final OK In ERISA Case Involving Target Date Funds
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act retirement plan case over the inclusion of Northern Trust target date funds (TDFs) and other purported pension benefit plan mismanagement has been closed after a Pennsylvania federal judge granted final approval to an $8.2 million class settlement.
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August 06, 2025
In 2-1 Ruling, 11th Circuit Affirms Ruling For Fund In Withdrawal Liability Row
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided a Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA) statutory interpretation question that panel members described using words like “tough” in a 2-1 decision that drew both a concurrence and a dissent, affirming a withdrawal liability ruling in favor of a multiemployer pension fund.
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August 06, 2025
9th Circuit Partly Reverses Arbitration Order In ERISA Imprudence Lawsuit
PASADENA, Calif. — In an unpublished memorandum disposition ruling in part that an arbitration agreement “is valid and enforceable unless Plaintiffs’ unconscionability defenses are successful,” the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a partial reversal in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenging management of a 401(k) and remanded for the lower court to consider those defenses.
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August 06, 2025
ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M
Class settlements below $5 million have been finalized or proposed in 18 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between late April and early August.
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August 05, 2025
9th Circuit Uses Effective Vindication Doctrine In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Case
PASADENA, Calif. — Calling the holding in the tobacco surcharge case “consistent with” decisions that five sister circuits issued in a variety of Employee Retirement Income Security Act disputes in the past few years, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 4 ruled in part that a health plan arbitration provision’s “representative action waiver violates the effective vindication doctrine and is unenforceable.”
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August 05, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Ruling Against Union Seeking To Boot Trustees It Appointed
CINCINNATI — Saying in part that any purported harms “appear to be monetarily compensable,” the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed denial of a union’s request for a preliminary injunction that, among other things, would have removed two union-appointed trustees from the board of a multiemployer welfare benefit plan that provides health benefits.
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August 04, 2025
7th Circuit Rules Termination Notice Sufficient In Withdrawal Liability Row
CHICAGO — Ruling in part that an employer provided sufficient notice that it was terminating a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal vacated a $166,350.75 attorney fee award and reversed summary judgment that had been entered against an employer that withdrew from a multiemployer pension plan.
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August 01, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Denial Of ‘Fees For Fees’ Motion In ERISA Coverage Row
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished opinion affirming denial of a request to award $75,460 in attorney fees for work that happened in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act coverage dispute over back surgery after the insurer decided during court-ordered reprocessing that it would pay the claim.
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July 31, 2025
Ark. Federal Judge Says Law Banning PBMs From Owning Pharmacies Likely To Fail
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A recently signed law that bans pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) from owning a pharmacy business in Arkansas likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause and is likely preempted by federal law, an Arkansas federal judge ruled, granting motions for a preliminary injunction.
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July 31, 2025
Class Members To Net Over $3,400 Apiece In COBRA Notice Deal Granted Initial OK
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A $1 million proposal to settle a suit over allegedly deficient Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) notice on a class basis won preliminary approval in Michigan federal court; in the granted motion, the named plaintiff estimated that about 184 class members would net approximately $3,451 apiece in a recovery “significantly higher than many other class action settlements in cases involving similar alleged violations.”
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July 31, 2025
Judge Affirms Insurer’s ‘Incarceration’ Interpretation In LTD Benefits Row
PITTSBURGH — Saying, “On the record before it, this Court finds that the term ‘incarceration’ is ambiguous, as it could mean post-conviction penal confinement or it could simply mean confinement,” a Pennsylvania federal judge on July 30 upheld termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under arbitrary and capricious review upon concluding that interpreting the term to mean confinement was within the insurer’s discretionary authority.
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July 31, 2025
Federal Judge Upholds LTD Benefits Termination Under Residency Provision
SEATTLE — Addressing cross-motions for judgment on the record on de novo review of a long-term disability (LDT) benefits dispute, a Washington federal judge upheld termination of benefits under an international residency provision despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic hit during the time at issue.
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July 30, 2025
Part Of ERISA Putative Class Action Over Tobacco Surcharge Survives Dismissal
ST. PAUL, Minn. — As the number of recent cases challenging health plans’ so-called tobacco surcharges continues to grow, a Minnesota federal judge on July 29 ruled that one of three claims in a putative class action over such surcharges survives dismissal “to the extent that it is premised on the failure to notify Plan participants that recommendations of an individual’s personal physician will be accommodated.”
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July 29, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Rulings For Administrator Of Tribe’s Health Care Plan
CINCINNATI — Rejecting a variety of arguments advanced by a Native American tribe and its health plan, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 28 affirmed rulings for the health plan’s third-party administrator (TPA) in a long-running dispute involving the Michigan Health Care False Claims Act (HCFCA) and Medicare-like rate (MLR) regulations.
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July 29, 2025
Proxy Advisory Firm Challenges New Texas Law Concerning ESG, DEI Issues
AUSTIN, Texas — A new Texas law concerning proxy advisers’ consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG), diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and sustainability factors is being challenged in Texas federal court, with the plaintiff arguing that, among other things, the law constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination and is preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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July 28, 2025
5th Circuit Rules That LTD Benefits Termination Was Sufficiently Supported
NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished per curiam opinion noting that the challenged termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits “was supported by reports from at least four healthcare professionals,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed judgment for an insurer in a case over whether the claimant was able to perform any gainful sedentary occupation.
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July 28, 2025
5th Circuit ERISA Appeal Involving Promise Not To Sue Is Dropped
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 25 granted a former retirement plan participant’s motion to voluntarily dismiss his challenge to a ruling that he lacks standing to bring a putative class action because he signed a promise not to sue that applies to his Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.
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July 25, 2025
In Advisory Opinion, DOL Tackles ERISA Question Regarding LTD Plan
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In one of its first advisory opinions issued under President Donald J. Trump, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) took the view that the self-funded long-term disability (LTD) plan of a mutual benefit corporation for California firefighters “does not constitute an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — with a caveat.
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July 24, 2025
$5.9M Settlement Of Class Action Against Former ESOP Trustee Gets Final OK
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted final approval to a $5.9 million class settlement resolving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act against the former trustee of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP); according to the named plaintiff, the net settlement averages more than $2,000 per class member.