Morgan Stanley Deferred Pay Dispute Draws Interest on Appeal

Morgan Stanley received a flood of support in its effort to have the Second Circuit hear its appeal arguing that a deferred compensation arrangement for former advisers was wrongly deemed subject to federal benefits law.

The district court’s decision “unnecessarily transformed” standard deferred compensation arrangements aimed at rewarding performance and loyalty into a “guaranteed pension” subject to the strict standards of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the American Benefits Council said in a Wednesday amicus brief. This ruling “confuses the boundaries” between ERISA plans and contingent deferred incentive plans, which will hamper companies’ legitimate efforts to minimize risk ...