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NC retiree health insurance case left unsettled by top court
RALEIGH (AP) — A decadelong legal fight over whether retired government workers were wronged when North Carolina stopped offering them a more generous level of premium-free health insurance remained unsettled after Friday’s ruling by the state Supreme Court. A majority of justices did agree that the former state employees and teachers had a “constitutionally protected […]
Estate planning with retirement accounts under the new SECURE Act
By Charlie Davis and Chalk Broughton The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the SECURE Act), signed into law by President Trump and became effective Jan. 1, has significantly altered the estate planning landscape for qualified retirement accounts, including, but not limited to, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457(b)s, and […]
It’s never too early to have a wind-down plan
By Lloyd C. Rosenberg I survived. After practicing law just shy of 40 years, I decided it was time to say goodbye. Adios. Hasta la vista, baby. And that’s exactly what I did. I walked out of my office as a partner for the last time on Dec. 14. A practice where I was hired, […]
A good place to retire
Turns out that Florida doesn’t have a monopoly on the retirement game. In a new list of the 25 healthiest places in the country to retire, four of the places are right here in the Tar Heel State, according to a financial news and opinion website called 24/7 Wall St. The counties of Henderson, Brunswick, […]
Workers’ Compensation – Voluntary Retirement Doesn’t Defeat Disability Claim
Employees covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act can claim disability benefits despite voluntary retirement, the circuit court held. After working for Appellee Huntington Ingalls Inc. for 45 years, Appellant Russell Moody gave 90 days’ notice of his retirement due to unhappiness with a new shift assignment. During the notice window, Moody injured […]
Labor & Employment – Retirement – Top Hat Plan – Crediting Rate Amendment – Volatility
Plotnick v. Computer Sciences Corp. Deferred Compensation Plan for Key Executives (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-195-17, 21 pp.) (Allyson Duncan, J.) 16-1606; Nov. 8, 2017; USDC at Alexandria, Va. (T. S. Ellis III, S.J.) 4th Cir. Holding: An ERISA top hat plan, which allowed highly compensated executives to defer compensation until retirement, provided that it could […]
Agreement reached in hospital retirement lawsuit
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A Winston-Salem based hospital system has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit about its retirement plan. The Winston-Salem Journal reported that Novant Health Inc. has agreed to pay $32 million to settle the lawsuit. The suit was filed last year in U.S. District Court in Greensboro by six current and […]
Labor & Employment — State Immune from Pension Pay-In Suit
Hutto v. The South Carolina Retirement System (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-01-1152, 37 pp.) (Niemeyer, J.) No. 13-1523, Dec. 5, 2014; USDC at Florence, S.C. (Childs, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: State pension plan defendants in South Carolina have 11th Amendment immunity from plaintiff public employees’ suit challenging state laws that required employees who retired, then returned […]
Sail away
Is Senior U.S. District Court Judge James Fox of Wilmington dreaming of the fully retired life?
Domestic Relations — Equitable Distribution – Retirement Account – QDRO – Constitutional – Due Process
Digh v. Digh (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-16-0999, 11 pp.) (Rick Elmore, J.) Appealed from Burke County District Court (Sherri Elliott, J.) N.C. App. Unpub. Holding: Since defendant stipulated to the terms of a 1998 consent judgment, he cannot now argue that the trial court erred in entering a 2009 order, which is premised entirely on […]
The painful talk about the long goodbye
The last week in July was a busy one for the North Carolina State Bar Council’s ethics committee. The committee approved five formal ethics opinions and adopted several proposed ethics opinions (we will write about those in this space in the coming weeks). One of the new formal ethics opinions, 2014 FEO 5, concerns a […]
4th Circuit: ERISA plaintiff can recoup lost pension benefits
A former AT&T employee was entitled to recoup benefits lost because she misunderstood when she would become eligible for her pension, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in affirming a $122,000 judgment in Helton v. AT&T.
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Commentary
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- Lawyers Weekly debuts new and improved web experience
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- A Different Ode to Pro Bono Work
- A roadmap to attracting, developing, retaining great associates
