John Hancock Backed by Insurers Group in ERISA Tax Credit Appeal

John Hancock Life Insurance Co. received support from the American Council of Life Insurers in its effort to defeat an Eleventh Circuit appeal claiming the company wrongly keeps foreign tax credits that belong to its 401(k) plan customers.

Foreign tax credits aren’t retirement plan assets under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and John Hancock doesn’t act as an ERISA fiduciary when it claims these credits, the council argued. Treating John Hancock as an ERISA fiduciary would upset established law and lead to damaging repercussions for the retirement plan service provider industry, which relies on “long-established rules about when they ...