Retirement Benefits, Pensions, 401(k) Plans, Life Insurance

ERISA Claims, Appeals, and Litigation

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”).

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA as it is known to lawyers, is a complex federal statute that, combined with a dizzying array of regulations issued by the United States Department of Labor, governs most claims for benefits that you have through a private employer. This includes pension benefits, retirement plans, supplemental executive retirement plans (“SERPs”), employee stock ownership plans, health insurance and medical benefits, short- and long-term disability benefits, group life insurance, dental, vision, and even severance benefits.

ERISA is an important law that provides crucial protections to workers and retirees, but it is also a notoriously complicated field of law with many traps for the unwary. For example, in most benefit claim disputes under ERISA, the plaintiff cannot submit additional evidence to support their claim in court, like you would in nearly any other lawsuit. So if your disability or health benefit claim is denied, and you don’t submit important evidence when appealing that to the insurance company or plan administrator, you might be out of luck and lose your case simply because you cannot get the evidence in later. Likewise, the standards of review, deadlines, statutes of limitation, and procedural rules of ERISA cases are detailed and ever changing.

We specialize in handling ERISA cases on behalf of plaintiffs. We have a proven history of winning these cases in federal court, click here to read about them.

Professional Negligence

Claims against insurance brokers, consultants, and third party administrators.

Our work in the ERISA field has given us unique insight and experience in how employee benefit plans should be run and in how things go wrong. We represent individuals and professional practices like law firms, medical practices, accountancies and more in claims against insurance brokers, pension plan and deferred compensation consultants, and third party plan administrators when things go wrong. We have handled cases involving complex supplemental executive retirement plans, medically underwritten annuity contracts, split-dollar life insurance policies, whole life insurance policies, and defined benefit pension plans, helping individuals and businesses recover from broker, consultant, and administrator malpractice.

Annuity & Life Insurance Fraud

Protecting retirees from bad actors.

We work hard to accumulate accumulate wealth over the course of our professional lives, and thus it is no surprise that we have the most to lose and are at our most vulnerable when making financial decisions as we enter our retirement years. Unfortunately, many people purchase annuity and life insurance products around this time of life based on false and misleading sales pitches by insurance brokers and other financial professionals about the wisdom, utility, and tax savings of these investments. If you have concerns about an annuity, a medically underwritten annuity, a whole life insurance policy, or other similar investment product, give us a call today.