Client Alert
Fiduciaries Exposed to New Liability Under ERISA
February 27, 2008
Until the decision of the United States Supreme Court in LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Associates, Inc., employee benefit plan participants who sued plan fiduciaries for investment losses in their retirement account faced significant legal hurdles to recovery. In LaRue, an opinion released February 20, 2008, the Court removed most of those hurdles, potentially opening the floodgate to new lawsuits. As fiduciaries of employee benefit plans are personally liable for losses to the plan, this decision represents a significant expansion of the liability faced by fiduciaries.
This alert provides a brief summary of the LaRue case, as well as outlines the problems it may create for plan sponsors and fiduciaries and posits several actions that they may wish to take to help address those problems.
Click here to read our full client alert.
If you have any questions regarding this client alert, please contact the attorneys listed below, the Womble Carlyle attorney with whom you usually work or one of our Employee Benefits attorneys listed on the following webpage: Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice Employee Benefits Lawyers.
Womble Carlyle client alerts are intended to provide general information about significant legal developments and should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts and circumstances, nor should they be construed as advertisements for legal services.
IRS CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice within this client alert is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed in a client alert.
