Employee Benefits

Retirement plans, health insurance and other employee benefit plans are central features of the employment relationship in the United States. The legal regulation of these plans is both an independent area of legal specialization and a subject that overlaps many other fields of law, including corporate, labor, tax, health, trust, employment discrimination and domestic relations law. The course will focus primarily on the regulation of retirement and health plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA") and the tax code. In addition to providing an overview of the main types of retirement and health plans, the course will look at rules governing coverage, vesting, funding, fiduciary standards, claims administration, remedies and preemption of state law. Tax I is not a prerequisite. No prior knowledge of tax is assumed.