New ERISA Regulation and President John F. Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon and bring him safely back to earth. He also had a secret, he suffered from Addison’s disease. It is believed that due to his condition and the superior health care he received as President, he decided to create the President’s Committee on Corporate Pension Plans, forerunner to ERISA. Trouble is, ERISA has turned into something entirely different.

The year was 1961. John F. Kennedy and the era of Camelot that accompanied his presidency had a nation believing in possibilities. He encouraged a country to see hope and promise; he pledged to put a man on the moon and to “return him safely back to earth.” Yet, despite President Kennedy’s boyish good looks and ruddy complexion, the photos showing him sailing and playing touch football at his family’s Massachusetts compound, Hyannis Port, America’s Chief Executive had a secret. President Kennedy suffered from Addison’s disease – chronic adrenal insufficiency, says Frank N. Darras, America’s top ERISA lawyer.

According to Darras, founding partner of DarrasLaw, “It is perhaps President Kennedy’s condition, his immune system abnormalities that led him to create the President’s Committee on Corporate Pension Plans, forerunner to ERISA, Employee Retirement Income Security Act” (signed into law on September 2, 1974 by Gerald R. Ford). “Realizing that he was privileged to have superior insurance, President Kennedy saw his Presidential Committee as a way to better serve people, something ERISA was intended to do, each and every day.”

Frank N. Darras, nationally recognized as the top long term disability insurance lawyer in America, is famous for fighting for those too weak or too ill to take on big insurance. Darras says there are a number of ERISA Civil Violations the public needs to be aware of including:

• Failing to operate the plan prudently and for the exclusive benefit of the participants.
• Using plan assets to benefit related parties to the plan, including the plan administrator and plan sponsor.
• Failing to properly value plan assets at their current fair market value, or to hold plan assets in trust.
• Failing to follow the terms of the plan (unless inconsistent with ERISA).
• Failing to properly select and monitor service providers.
• Taking adverse action against an individual for exercising his/her rights under the plan, e.g., being fired, fined or discriminated against.

The most egregious, is my final point listed, says Darras. Taking adverse action against an individual for exercising his/her rights under the plan. “Plan complexities and employee feelings of powerlessness,” are two of the many reasons he and his firm of ERISA lawyers advocate on behalf of their clients. He concludes, “Just as President Kennedy understood the pluses and pitfalls of insurance, advocating new initiatives to protect the rights of all, so too, does DarrasLaw understand ERISA complexity and how to help ERISA claimants.”

On February 9th, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury provided their final regulations implementing section 2715 of the Public Health Services Act, a provision of the Affordable Care Act. This ruling changes the way employers and insurance providers must disclose fees and outline services under ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). The long-awaited ruling is a welcome change for many who have been wrongfully denied coverage under ERISA.