Your Rights Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act is a federal law. This Act sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. Under this Act the participants are entitled to written information (some automatically and some upon request) from the plan administrators about the retirement and health benefit plans including plan rules, financial information, and documents on the operation and management of the plan. The law requires the administrator to provide the summary plan description and a copy of the plan's summary annual report to the participants free of charge. The participant can also obtain them by writing to the United States Department of Labor if the administrator fails to provide them. Plans are legally required by the Act to provide participants with important information about plan features and funding and sets minimum standards for participation, vesting, benefit-accrual and funding. The Act also lays down certain eligibility criteria - how long a person may be required to work before becoming eligible to participate in a plan, to accumulate benefits and to have a non-forfeitable right to those benefits. The Act also creates detailed funding rules. These rules require plan sponsors to provide adequate funding for the plan. Consult with an experienced somekeyword to know your eligibility for participating in a pension plan. The Act requires accountability of plan fiduciaries (someone who exercises discretionary authority or control over a plan's management or assets, including anyone who provides investment advice to the plan) and protects the plan from mismanagement and misuse of assets through its fiduciary provisions. The Act give participants the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty. The Act guarantees payment of certain benefits if a defined plan is terminated, through a federally chartered corporation, known as the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. One requirement of the Act is that the plans must include a certain proportion of (but not all) employees. Workers "covered" by a plan must be given an opportunity to become plan members if they meet certain requirements. If you work for specified periods of time, you will earn non forfeitable rights to receive pensions at retirement. Plans are required to give benefit credit for all years of plan participation. A dollar value is assigned to each year of benefit credit. This value must conform to nondiscrimination rules aimed at preventing excessive weighting in favor of higher-paid and older employees. Plans are required to provide benefits for widows and widowers of plan participants, although this protection can be given up if both spouses agree and must pay pensions to former spouses if directed to do so by a specific kind of court order. The timing and form of payment of their pensions can be decided by the participants. Persons administering pension plans or investing plan assets must follow certain mandatory standards of conduct. Each plan is required to report detailed financial and actuarial data regularly to the IRS which may be made available to participants. The Act has provision for appeal against adverse pension benefit decisions, first to the plan, and then, if necessary, to the courts. In case of any violation of the law, the courts can award certain remedies. Under the Act, plans cannot interfere (by the use of discharges, layoffs, plant closings, or other means) with participants' attaining their benefits under a pension plan. somekeyword to discuss your rights. An experienced employment attorney can help fight for your rights under the Act

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