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THE AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE
Continuing Legal Education
Pension, Profit-Sharing, Welfare and
Other Compensation Plans
October 17 - 19, 2012
Washington, D.C.
Through a Glass Darkly:
Musings About CIGNA Corp. v. Amara and
Pfeil v. State Street Bank and Trust Co.
By
T. David Cowart
SNR Denton
Dallas, Texas
© 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved.
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Through a Glass Darkly:
Musings About CIGNA Corp. v. Amara
and
Pfeil v. State Street Bank and Trust Co.
ALI-CLE Pension, Profit-Sharing, Welfare, and Other
Compensation Plans Seminar
T. David Cowart
October 18, 2012
Copyright © 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved
1
Part One:
Lessons Learned
from
CIGNA Corp. v. Amara
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Administrative Impact
Many U.S. Supreme Court opinions
seem to have little apparent impact on
the everyday lives of plans and plan
administrators.
CIGNA Corp. v. Amara, 563 U.S. __,
131 S. Ct. 1866 (2011) looks to be an
exception.
Copyright © 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved
3
Administrative Impact
Five potential areas of immediate impact (outside of litigation) are:
Plan documents;
SPDs;
Communications about benefits;
Management of a plan; and
The in-house benefits communication function.
Unlike regulatory and statutory changes, however, the impact of
this case will be evolutionary, slower in coming and susceptible to
geographic differences.
Copyright © 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved
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