Fiduciary Liability Litigation

Increasingly, pension and 401(k) plan fiduciaries find themselves targets of complex fiduciary liability lawsuits that threaten corporate and even personal assets.

"When business officers, directors and executives do not fully understand the serious obligations of serving as a fiduciary under ERISA, they expose themselves to the risk of costly litigation." states Mark Johnson, Ph.D., J.D. and President of ERISA Benefits Consulting.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) contains four requirements for  401(k) plan fiduciaries often referred to as the obligation to operate plans for the "exclusive benefit" of the participants: 

   1. the duty of loyalty

   2. the duty of prudence

   3. the duty to diversify investments

   4. the duty to follow plan documents

ERISA Section 409 stipulates that any "person who is a fiduciary with respect to a plan who breaches any of the responsibilities, obligations, or duties imposed upon fiduciaries by this title shall be personally liable to make good to such plan any losses to the plan resulting from each such breach..." The fiduciary may also be personally responsible for paying any civil penalties or excise taxes imposed on an employer by a Court of Law.

Dr. Johnson has developed an in-depth knowledge of fiduciary liability cases by working closely with plaintiff and defense counsel on leading national cases involving Fortune 500 companies. He is available to advise you on an existing case or to help you review pension plan documents in an effort to minimize litigation threats. Learn more about Dr. Johnson here.

Contact Fiduciary Liability Expert Dr. Mark Johnson

You can reach Dr. Johnson via email or by phone at 817-909-0778. He is available to confidentially discuss an ERISA or fiduciary liability matter.

Click on the link to read about his representative ERISA cases.

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Publications

"U.S. Supreme Court Directs Lower Court to Revisit M&G Polymers Case Terminating Free Retiree Health Benefits"

"Multiemployer Pension Plans to Legally Reduce Member Benefits under New Pension Reform"

"Detroit Exits Bankruptcy with ‘Grand Bargain’ that Reduces Pensions of 23,000 City Retirees"

"PBGC Announces 2015 Premium Rate Increases on the Heels of Two Multiemployer Plan Bailouts"

"Motorola and Bristol-Myers Squibb the Latest to Turn Over Pension Obligations to Prudential"

"In Corporate Mergers, Retirement Plan Considerations Should be Front-and-Center"

"Pension Reporting: The Differences between a 10-K and Form 5500"

"PBGC Issues Dire Forecast on Growing Deficit of Multi-Employer Plans and Suspects that Its Own Solvency is at Risk"

"PBGC Changes Multi-Employer Plan Regulations to Ease Burdens on Plans and Sponsors"

"State and Local Government Fiscal Sustainability and the Trend Gap"

"The Future Solvency of Multiemployer Benefit Plans"

"Individual Account Balance Plans The Class Action Environment"

"Supreme Court to Hear ERISA Case on Moench Presumption of Prudence"

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