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U.S. Health Insurance Regulator Gary Cohen to Resign

"Gary Cohen, the top U.S. health insurance regulator accused by congressional Republicans of misleading them before the troubled start of the Obamacare insurance website, will resign. Cohen will step down as director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the end of the month, when the first enrollment period for the health-care law concludes[.]"

Institutional Investors and Public Pension Funds Denounce SEC's Push for Forced Arbitration

"A coalition of more than 60 major institutional investors and pension systems, collectively managing trillions of dollars in direct assets and representing over $8 trillion globally through umbrella organizations and associations, released a letter this week strongly opposing the [SEC's] unprecedented policy reversal permitting companies to include forced arbitration provisions into their corporate charters and registration statements."

Eleventh Circuit Ruling Could Unravel Strict ERISA Exhaustion Rule

"A recent Eleventh Circuit decision opens up a route for overturning the appellate court's strictest-in-the-nation precedent requiring administrative exhaustion of all claims brought under [ERISA], ... given that two judges in a panel concurrence advocated for such action following en banc review." [Bolton v. Inland Fresh Seafood Corp. of Am., Inc., No. 24-10084 (11th Cir. Oct. 15, 2025)]

Defying Arbitration: ERISA's Fight to Stay in Court

"While ERISA claims are indeed arbitrable as a general matter, a growing number of circuit courts have ruled that arbitration clauses cannot overreach and extinguish substantive remedies. Several plan sponsors have tried to add arbitration clauses that waive plan-wide remedies, but courts have found them to constitute prospective waivers of participants' statutory rights, rendering them unenforceable under the 'effective vindication' doctrine."

District Court Approves $7.9M Settlement Against Hedge Fund in 401(k) Class Action

"[T]he plaintiffs alleged that 100% of GWA LLC 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan investments (all of which were 401(k) assets) were and continued to be invested in The Weiss Funds ... Plaintiffs further claimed that the Weiss Mutual Fund lacked the performance history, market acceptance, and cost structure to be a substantial investment for the 401(k) plan." [Andrews-Berry v. George A Weiss, No. 23-0978 (D. Conn. settlement approved Sep. 19, 2025)]

AT&T Can't Escape Suit Over Pension Plan's Mortality Data

"AT&T must face a proposed class action claiming it miscalculated married couples' pension benefits, a California federal judge ruled, saying workers leading the suit provided evidence that the telecommunications company's use of decades-old mortality data and interest rates was unreasonable." [Scott v. AT&T Inc., No. 20-7094 (N.D. Calif. Jul. 9, 2025)]

Southern Company Retirees Urge Eleventh Circuit to Revive Pension Suit

"The proposed class of Southern Company pension plan participants ... entered a reply brief with the appellate court on [March 20] ... arguing a district court wrongly found that companies have the discretion to define for themselves what the term 'actuarial equivalent' means under Section 1055(d) of ERISA." [Drummond v. Southern Company Services, Inc., No. 22-0174 (N.D. Ga. Jul. 30, 2024; on appeal to 11th Cir. No. 24-12773)]

Pluralsight Reaches $20 Million Settlement with Public School Retirement Funds

"The class action lawsuit, first filed in 2019 and revived in 2022, claimed Pluralsight and its founding executives knowingly misled investors about their company's success, artificially inflated stock prices and cashed out before stock prices plummeted. The lead plaintiffs in the case are two funds responsible for managing retirement and benefit accounts for public employees in Indiana and Chicago, Illinois. Each fund bought thousands of common stock shares when Pluralsight went public in 2018, according to court documents, and lost millions of dollars as a result." [Indiana Public Retirement System v. Pluralsight, Inc., No. 19-0128 (D. Utah Feb. 5, 2025)]

Citgo Settles Lawsuit Challenging Plan Mortality Tables

"Citgo will ... settle a class action alleging it shorted early retirement payouts by basing the allowances on outdated mortality tables that used data from the 1970s ... Citgo has agreed to increase the value of retirees' annuities by $10 million, calculated as additional present value added to their benefits[.]" [Urlaub v. Citgo Petroleum Corp., No. 21-4133 (N.D. Ill. settlement agreement filed Oct. 2, 2024)]

Hedge Fund Inks Deal In ERISA 401(k) Investment Suit

"A Connecticut-based hedge fund that went bankrupt and owner George A. Weiss have agreed to pay $7.9 million to end an ex-worker's suit alleging the company plowed its employees' retirement savings into two substandard proprietary funds[.]" [Andrew-Berry v. George A. Weiss and GWA, LLC, No. 23-0978 (D. Conn. motion for settlement Sep. 27, 2024)]

Court Certifies ERISA Class Action Challenging CITGO Pension Actuarial Assumptions

"[A] federal judge certified a class of more than 1,700 participants and beneficiaries in two of CITGO Petroleum Corporation's pension plans.... The lawsuit against CITGO alleges that the Houston-based gas and energy giant violated [ERISA] by failing to properly calculate joint and survivor annuity ('JSA') benefits for retired employees and imposing a 'marriage penalty' that reduced their monthly pension payments." [Urlaub v. Citgo Petroleum Corp., No. 21-4133 (N.D. Ill. May 16, 2024)]

CITGO Employees Beat Summary Judgment in 'Marriage Penalty' ERISA Lawsuit

"[P]laintiffs claim that prior to 2018, two CITGO pension plans utilized inaccurate mortality tables (from the 1970s) to determine the value of JSAs, resulting in married retirees consistently receiving less than the actuarial equivalent of a single-life annuity as required under ERISA. The lawsuit seeks to recover the underpayments, and to reform the CITGO Plans to fully comply with protections afforded by ERISA to pension plan participants and their beneficiaries." [Urlaub v. Citgo Petroleum Corp., No. 21-4133 (N.D. Ill. May 6, 2024)]

Is Your Employer's Retirement Plan Imposing a Marriage Penalty?

"[A] growing number of lawsuits allege that companies are failing to ensure that pensions are actuarially equivalent -- and specifically that the companies' failures are systematically underpaying married couples. This means that you and your surviving spouse could be the subject of a 'marriage penalty' resulting in a substantial loss of benefits.... Here's what you need to know."

Escalating Litigation of Actuarial Equivalence in Taft-Hartley Plans: No End in Sight

"To date, eleven class action lawsuits have been filed asserting ERISA violations for the failure to pay actuarially equivalent pension benefits. To date, all lawsuits in this area have involved corporate pension plans. The vast majority survived motions to dismiss in jurisdictions around the country[.]"

AT&T Workers Challenging Pensions Keep California Venue

"Six former workers ... [claim] AT&T shortchanges the pensions of workers who retire before age 65 or choose pension formats that pay benefits to their surviving spouses after their deaths.... AT&T sought to transfer the case to the Northern District of Texas in January, arguing that the plan is administered in Texas and is governed by the laws of that state." [Eliason v. AT&T Inc., No. 19-6232 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 8, 2021)]

New York Life Sued Over 401(k) In-House Funds, Default Investment

"[The suit] accuses the insurer of improperly profiting off its workers' retirement savings by defaulting certain retirement plan participants into an undiversified general account insurance fund. [The suit alleges that the] fund -- called the Fixed Dollar Account -- isn't a permissible 401(k) default investment[.]" [Krohnengold v. New York Life Ins. Co., No. 21-1778 (S.D.N.Y. complaint filed Mar. 2, 2021)]

The Right to Jury Trial in ERISA Actions (PDF)

"[C]ourts largely agree that ... an ERISA action is typically not subject to ajury trial. However, one circuit court (and several district courts) have permitted jury trials in instances where the litigants seek legal relief (as opposed to equitable relief) such as personal liability for losses."

Death by Paperwork? ESG Investing Probe Hints at Onerous Pile-On

"A series of form letters sent to retirement plans hints at how the [DOL] may enforce a new requirement that sponsors justify socially conscious investments. One such letter ... presses plan administrators to provide 13 types of supporting documents, including: the names, addresses, and duties of those responsible for making investment decisions, proxy voting policies, and myriad financial statements associated with the plan design."

Trust Company Hit with Class Suit Over $106 Million Stock Plan Deal

"The class action complaint ... claims GreatBanc signed off on the deal without performing adequate due diligence.... At issue is a 2015 transaction in which Triad -- a producer of custom wood furniture and fixtures -- became 100% employee-owned through the creation of an [ESOP]." [Smith v. GreatBanc Trust Co., No. 20-2350 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed Apr. 15, 2020)]

Latest Cigna Case Illustrates Changing Landscape of ERISA Litigation

"[Plaintiffs allege] that Cigna set up a complex web of processes and procedures which has resulted in providers to be reimbursed for only a fraction of their incurred charges, rather than the amount they should be reimbursed under the plans administered by Cigna. The providers allege that these violations are compounded, because Cigna withdraws the entire dollar amount of the healthcare provider's claim from the trust funds of self-funded plans, but only pays a small portion of those funds to the provider and pockets the rest." [Advanced Gynecology and Laparoscopy of North Jersey. v. Cigna Health and Life Ins., No. 19-22234, (D.N.J. complaint filed Dec. 31, 2019]