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The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Kott v. Agilent Technologies Inc. Disability Plan, has determined that a plan administrator abused its discretion in denying long-term disability ("LTD") benefits because it: (i) failed to provide the plaintiff with a sufficient...
In September 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") expanded its collection efforts to include summary W-2 pay data and total hours worked by race, ethnicity, and gender from employers that already file the EEO-1 report (e.g., private employers...
In a letter dated February 27, 2019, the Department of Labor ("DOL") has reiterated that an ERISA-covered plan cannot prevent a plan participant from appointing an authorized representative for initial claims and for claims appeals.DOL regulations expressly give...
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, in Byrd v. City of Houston, has determined that a plaintiff-employee's Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") claim should be allowed to proceed where the defendant-employer first approved and then...
On February 24, 2019, New York state's Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act ("GENDA") went into effect. GENDA prohibits all employers with four or more employees from discriminating against workers on the basis of their actual or perceived gender identity, gender...
The United States Department of Labor ("DOL") has issued an Information Letter confirming that state laws requiring employers to obtain written consent before withholding amounts from employees' wages for benefit plan contributions are preempted by ERISA. Background....
In recent years, much activity has centered around the idea of open MEPs - that is, multiple employer plans that do not require any relationship among the participating employers in the plan. In 2018, bills were introduced in Congress to permit open MEPs, including...
The IRS has issued Information Letter 2018-0033, which provides details on certain situations that allow an employer to request the return of Health Savings Account ("HSA") contributions it made on behalf of its employees. Information Letter 2018-0033 expands upon the...
There is generally a gnashing of teeth when a key employee leaves for a competitor, and that gnashing may evolve into weeping when an employer finds that its noncompetition protections are unenforceable. Massachusetts has long followed most states by enforcing...
If you are 70½ years of age or older, have a standard IRA and are interested in making qualified charitable distributions, the following will be of interest to you. By making donations directly from your IRA to charity, you will avoid having to pay income taxes on...