Pension plans of church-affiliated organizations face new challenges

Lawyers' Forum

By Dennis G. Bouxsein

Dennis G. Bouxsein is a partner in the employee benefits and executive compensation department at Ungaretti & Harris LLP. He focuses his practice on tax-qualified retirement plans, welfare benefit plans and non-qualified and other benefit plans for executives. He can be reached at (312) 977-9204.

Posted January 26, 2015 2:37 PM

In the arcane world of federal pension law, so-called church plans have historically attracted relatively little attention. This is changing, however, in the wake of several high-profile lawsuits recently brought against several large Catholic and other church-affiliated health-care systems. What is driving these lawsuits? A pension plan that qualifies as a “church plan” is exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), including its funding requirements and the plan termination insurance …

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