Sasha Rousseau (Employee Benefits Practice Group summer associate)

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) regulates most private employee benefit retirement and welfare plans. This statute’s purview is vast; it governs employer-sponsored defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans and an array of welfare plans.

Under ERISA, a plan fiduciary is an entity that exercises authority or control over the management

A recent rash of class action lawsuits in California claim that using forfeitures to reduce future employer contributions to tax-qualified retirement plans runs afoul of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). These cases have continued to advance despite their central claim seeming to contradict long-standing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance for the permitted use