The extent, if any, to which a participant’s spouse or former spouse is entitled to the participant’s employee benefits is often an important issue in divorces and marital separations. State courts thus frequently issue domestic relations orders (“DROs”) pertaining to such benefits....

This article discusses when a pension or welfare plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended ("ERISA") may, and when it must, comply with directions of an attorney in fact under a state-law power of attorney or court-appointed guardians. ERISA and the...

A young man, Christopher Jackson (“Christopher”), strangled to death his grandmother, Rosemarie Little (“Rosemarie”), a beloved Skadden Arps legal secretary and churchgoing woman, who had chosen Christopher to receive part of her death benefits under her employer's 401(k) plan and life...

Ethical-factor investing shall be defined as using ethics, such as an enterprise’s policies regarding social/economic/health/environmental justice, sustainability, climate change, or corporate governance, as a factor to determine whether to acquire, dispose of, or how to exercise ownership...

Ethical-factor investing shall be defined as using ethics, such as an enterprise’s policies regarding social/economic/health justice, sustainability, climate change, or corporate governance, as a factor to determine whether to acquire, dispose of, or how to exercise ownership rights in an...

In Metropolitan Life v. Drainville, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63613 (DC R.I. July 23, 2009), a federal district court in Rhode Island recently explained the requirements that a domestic relations order ("DRO") must satisfy to be a qualified domestic relation order (“QDRO”). The court held an...

Questions are often raised about who is entitled to death or survivor benefits from a federally regulated employee benefit plan, whether for federal employees, or for private employees by a plan governed by ERISA. The following principles generally resolve these questions: • Federal law does...