William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

29 U.S.C. Chapter 18 contains ERISA — the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which was passed in 1974.  Its purpose is to protect employee benefit plans from employer malfeasance, such as using employee plans to fund corporate operations or pay corporate debts.

Like the deferred compensation section of the tax code, ERISA itself its own legal specialty.   A complete discussion would be the subject of an entire course in law school.  For our purposes, the following points are salient:

1.) The statute gives federal courts jurisdiction over a large number of causes of action related to ERISA: (“Except for actions under subsection (a)(1)(B) of this section, the district courts of the United States shall have exclusive jurisdiction of civil actions under this subchapter brought by the Secretary or by a participant, beneficiary, fiduciary, or any person referred to in section 1021(f)(1) of this title. State courts of competent jurisdiction and district courts of the United States shall have concurrent jurisdiction of actions under paragraphs (1)(B) and (7) of subsection (a) of this section.).  This greatly increases the weight of potential litigation.

2.) The statute creates a complex compliance burden.  Here is a list of the sections contained in 29 U.S.C. Part I: Reporting and Disclosure:

This is yet another reason why an entire industry exists to service deferred compensation plans.