Congress passed the Employment Retirement Income Security Act to protect employee benefits including pension or retirement benefits. However, ERISA does not specifically address one of the current "hot topics" in employer retirement plans. That "hot topic" is the use of defined benefit or defined contribution retirement plans. Employers that have defined benefit retirement plans are increasingly converting those plans to defined contribution plans while almost all new employee pension plans are defined contribution plans.
1. What protections does ERISA provide to employees in general?
2. How might these protections be inadequate from an employee standpoint as our country faces challenging economic times?
3. Can employees truly "rely" on benefits such as health insurance and retirement?