Using much the same logic as the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Kaplan v. St. Peter’s Healthcare System, the 7th Circuit decided a church plan established by a church and maintained by a church is a church plan, and a church plan established by a church and maintained by a church-affiliated organization is a church plan—but a church plan established by a church-affiliated organization and maintained by a church-affiliated organization is not a church plan. The appellate court in Advocate agreed with the 3rd Circuit that, according to the language of ERISA, for church plan exemption, there are two requirements—establishment and maintenance—and only the maintenance requirement is expanded by the use of the word “includes.”The Cohen Milstein law firm, having now won their second straight appellate judgment in this recent group of cases, deserves to crow a little; they do so in this informative press release.
The management of Saint Peter's University Hospital is using the church to exempt itself from the Federal safeguards that protect your retirement plan. For an introduction, see Your Pension At Risk.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
First Media Reports Of Latest Appellate Victory
Rebecca Moore of PLANSPONSOR/PLANADVISOR has published a news item on last Thursday's decision in Stapleton v. Advocate Health Care Network. It's short, but this paragraph sums up the court's reasoning so well we're including it here in its entirety:
