Benefits & Executive Compensation News

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Whiting Bosses Got $14.6 Million Bonuses Before Bankruptcy (1)

Whiting Petroleum Corp.’s board approved $14.6 million in cash bonuses for top executives days before the shale oil producer filed for bankruptcy.

Kentucky Lawmakers Put Pensions First in ‘Pessimistic’ Budget

The Kentucky General Assembly on Wednesday passed an unusual one-year budget package, adopting the most “pessimistic” forecast created by state economists while still prioritizing payments to the struggling pension funds for state and local government workers.

DOL Says 61 Million Workers Can Get Virus-Related Paid Leave (1)

The Labor Department issued a new regulation to implement coronavirus-related paid sick and family leave benefits available for up to 61 million workers.

Ex-NFL Safety Loses Suit Over Stymied Disability Benefit Claims

A former National Football League safety lost his lawsuit claiming players with head injuries were denied crucial information on how to request disability benefits, according to a ruling by the Southern District of New York.

Aetna Sued Over Coverage of Proton Beam Therapy Cancer Treatment

Aetna Life Insurance Co. fails to cover proton beam therapy for treating cancer by incorrectly characterizing it as experimental and investigational, according to a proposed class action filed in the Southern District of Florida.

U.S. Response to Coronavirus Tops $2 Trillion: BGOV OnPoint

A $2 trillion package of tax breaks, business loans, and health-care assistance is the latest, but likely not the last, legislative response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Featured Topics

benefits administration

Aetna Sued Over Coverage of Proton Beam Therapy Cancer Treatment

Blue Cross Louisiana Must Face Suit Over Inflated Drug Prices

Ex-Teva Workers Advance 401(k) Suit; Judge Cites Penn Loss

executive compensation

Whiting Bosses Got $14.6 Million Bonuses Before Bankruptcy (1)

Caterpillar Executive Pay Frozen as Part of Efforts to Cut Costs

Disney Chairman Iger to Skip Salary; Other Leaders Take Cuts (1)

pension and retirement plans

Kentucky Lawmakers Put Pensions First in ‘Pessimistic’ Budget

Coronavirus Relief Sets Low Bar for Raiding Retirement Accounts

Ex-Teva Workers Advance 401(k) Suit; Judge Cites Penn Loss

tax

Coronavirus Relief Sets Low Bar for Raiding Retirement Accounts

White House, Pelosi Weigh Next Stimulus Amid Ire Over Last Bill

Trump Signs $2 Trillion Virus Bill, Largest Ever U.S. Stimulus

Case: Retirement Plans/Fiduciary Duties (S.D.N.Y)

A federal district court in New York adopted a U.S. magistrate’s recommendation to deny Columbia University’s trustees summary judgment in a purported ERISA class action brought by employees for breach of fiduciary duties. The employees claimed that the trustees breached their legal duties when they allegedly failed to rein in the plans’ administrative fees, failed to consolidate the plans’ multiple record keepers, and failed to appropriately monitor and remove underperforming investments. The court determined that the recommendation denying the trustees summary judgment as to the record keeping fees and investment monitoring claims was reasonable. And the court adopted the recommendation to deny the trustees’ motion to exclude certain of the employees’ experts. The case is Cates v. Trs. of Columbia Univ., 2020 BL 118219, S.D.N.Y., 16 Civ. 6524 (GBD) (SDA), 3/30/20. Cates v. Trs. of Columbia Univ., 2020 BL 118219, S.D.N.Y., 16 Civ. 6524 (GBD) (SDA), 3/30/20

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Case: Retirement Plans/Benefit Calculation (E.D. Mo.)

Anheuser-Busch Cos. LLC’s motion to dismiss a retiree’s proposed class action claiming the company shortchanges certain workers’ pensions by using decades-old life expectancy data that doesn’t reflect increases in longevity was denied by a federal district court in Missouri. The court held that the retiree sufficiently alleged that Anheuser-Busch used unreasonable actuarial factors that resulted in benefits that fail to meet ERISA’s actuarially-equivalent requirement, that the disclosure regulations governing written explanations of joint-and-survivor annuities didn’t make the retiree’s benefits actuarially equivalent to other forms of benefits and didn’t make the actuarial assumptions reasonable, the retiree included factual allegations to support his argument that the actuarial assumption was unreasonable because Anheuser-Busch used a 1984 mortality table, the retiree adequately pleaded that use of the 1984 mortality table was unreasonable, and the retiree sufficiently alleged that the actuarial assumptions used to calculate alternative benefits were unreasonable and failed to conform to ERISA’s actuarial-equivalence requirement. The case is Duffy v. Anheuser-Busch Cos., 2020 BL 115139, E.D. Mo., 4:19-cv-01189-SRC, 3/27/20. Duffy v. Anheuser-Busch Cos., 2020 BL 115139, E.D. Mo., 4:19-cv-01189-SRC, 3/27/20

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Case: Health Care & Benefits/Long-Term Disability Benefits (6th Cir.)

The Sixth Circuit affirmed a federal district court’s denial of Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co.'s motion to dismiss an Oakwood Healthcare Inc. nurse’s ERISA appeal of her long-term disability benefits denial on the basis of exhaustion, but it vacated the grant of long-term disability benefits and attorneys’ fees. The nurse contracted an illness while traveling in Belize and suffered from hypothyroidism, multiple hormone deficiencies, hypotension, hypopituitarism, immune suppression disorder, severe joint pain, and tachycardia. The district court determined that the nurse wasn’t required to exhaust her administrative remedies prior to filing suit, overturned Reliance’s denial of long-term disability benefits, awarded and calculated benefits to the nurse, and awarded her attorneys’ fees. The Sixth Circuit held that Reliance didn’t describe any internal claims review process or remedies in its plan document and that the plan did not establish a reasonable claims procedure pursuant to ERISA regulations, so her administrative remedies must be deemed exhausted. But the Sixth Circuit determined that the nurse isn’t necessarily entitled to the disability benefits she won in the district court because she fell ill in 2012, before Reliance took over administration of her employer’s disability plan, so Reliance may be able to avoid paying benefits under plan provisions governing pre-existing conditions and transfers of insurance coverage. The case is Wallace v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., 2020 BL 118647, 6th Cir., 18-2316, 3/31/20. Wallace v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., 2020 BL 118647, 6th Cir., 18-2316, 3/31/20

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IRS AOD: Excludible Difficulty of Care Payments Still Earned Income for EITC, Child Tax Credit (IRC §131)

Acquiescence in result only recommended in Feigh v. Commissioner, 154 T.C. No. 15, 5/15/19, that in cases which the IRS permits taxpayers, pursuant to the Notice 2014-7, to treat qualified Medicaid waiver payments as difficulty of care payments excludible under tax code Section 131, the IRS will not argue that payments that otherwise fall within the definition of earned income under Section 32(c)(3) are not earned income for determining eligibility for the EIC and the ACTC merely because they are excludible under the notice. [AOD 2020-02]

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