Employee Retirement Income Security Act - ERISA
- Employee Retirement Income Security Act - ERISA
- The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) protects the retirement assets of Americans by implementing rules that qualified plans must follow to ensure that plan fiduciaries do not misuse plan assets.
ERISA also:
1. Requires plans to provide participants with important information about plan features and funding. The plan must furnish some information regularly and automatically. Some of this information is available free of charge.
2. Sets minimum standards for participation, vesting, benefit accrual and funding. The law defines how long a person may be required to work before becoming eligible to participate in a plan, to accumulate benefits and to have a non-forfeitable right to those benefits. The law also establishes detailed funding rules that require plan sponsors to provide adequate funding for the plan.
3. Requires accountability of plan fiduciaries. ERISA generally defines a fiduciary as anyone who exercises discretionary authority or control over a plan's management or assets, including anyone who provides investment advice to the plan. Fiduciaries who do not follow the principles of conduct may be held responsible for restoring losses to the plan.
4. Gives participants the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty.
5. Guarantees payment of certain benefits if a defined plan is terminated through a federally chartered corporation, known as the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
6. Protects the plan from mismanagement and misuse of assets through its fiduciary provisions.
This act was enacted to address irregularities in the administration of certain large pension plans - particularly the Teamsters Pension Fund, which had a rather colorful history involving questionable loans to certain Las Vegas casinos.
Investment dictionary.
Academic.
2012.
Look at other dictionaries:
Employee Retirement Income Security Act — (ERISA) A federal law that sets minimum standards for pension plans and health benefit plans, to protect the employees covered by these plans. ERISA requires plans to provide certain information to plan participants, imposes responsibilities on… … Law dictionary
Employee Retirement Income Security Act — ( ERISA) The law that regulates the operation of private pensions and benefit plans. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary * * * Employee Retirement Income Security Act Employee Retirement Income Security Act ➔ ERISA * * * Employee Retirement Income… … Financial and business terms
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — (ERISA) USA A federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. Practical Law Dictionary. Glossary of UK, US and… … Law dictionary
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — ( ERISA) Legislation mandating standards for vesting requirements and funding of pension plans. American Banker Glossary … Financial and business terms
Employee Retirement Income Security Act — The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) (USStatute|93|406|88|829|1974|09|02) is an American federal statute that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry and provides for extensive rules on the… … Wikipedia
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Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — n. An act of Congress that sets guidelines for employee benefit plans. abbrv. ERISA The Essential Law Dictionary. Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Amy Hackney Blackwell. 2008 … Law dictionary
Retirement plans in the United States — A retirement plan is an arrangement to provide people with an income, possibly a pension, during retirement, when they are no longer earning a steady income from employment, or an asset from which a person may draw an income from as needed. There … Wikipedia
retirement plans — General term referring to various types of retirement benefit plans provided by employers or established individually by self employed. See individual retirement account (I.R.A.); Keogh plan; money purchase plan, pension plan; retirement annuity … Black's law dictionary
ERISA — /e ri sə/ abbrEmployee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 see also the important laws section Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. ERISA … Law dictionary