Under ERISA, a participating employer that withdraws from a multiemployer pension plan must pay its share of the plan’s unfunded vested benefits (i.e., its withdrawal liability). ERISA’s “controlled group” rules extend this obligation to all “trades and businesses” that are under “common control” with the withdrawing employer, thereby making the withdrawing employer and each controlled
Departments Outline Fertility Benefit Options for Employers
By Jennifer Rigterink on
Last week, the Departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Labor released Affordable Care Act FAQs Part 72, confirming that employers and other plan sponsors may offer fertility benefits through existing HIPAA “excepted benefit” structures. The guidance does not announce new methods for plan sponsors to provide fertility benefits, but it does confirm…
No Monetary Harm, No Foul? Not Quite, but American Airlines Not Required to Pay Any Monetary Damages in ERISA ESG Breach of Loyalty Case
By Mary Grace Richardson & Adam Scoll on
On September 30, 2025, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a final judgment on damages in Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., No. 4:23-cv-552 (N.D. Tex. Sept. 30, 2025), which related to challenges that American Airlines and its employee benefits committee (“AA”) violated their ERISA fiduciary…
Eleventh Circuit Holds Pension Fund Correctly Applied Partial Withdrawal Liability Credit
By Neil V. Shah & Sydney Juliano on
In Perfection Bakeries Inc. v. Retail Wholesale & Dep’t Store Int’l Union & Indus. Pension Fund, No. 23-12533, 147 F.4th 1314 (11th Cir. Aug. 1, 2025), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed that an employer’s credit for a prior partial withdrawal from a multiemployer pension plan must be applied at the second step of the four-step statutory…