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Jovana Vujovic focuses her practice on life, disability, and health care litigation. She has experience in handling all aspects of litigation and pre-litigation matters, and in providing advice to clients to assess and minimize their litigation exposure. She is a member of Robinson+Cole's Managed Care + Employe Benefit Litigation Group. Ms. Vujovic handles disputes related to group welfare benefits, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), health insurance, disability insurance, and life insurance coverage. She has represented clients in disputes across the country, at both the trial and appellate levels. Ms. Vujovic’s previous experience as a corporate counsel in the litigation section of MetLife gives her special insight in assisting her insurance company clients. Read her full rc.com bio here.

In Vest v. Resolute FP US, Inc., 905 F.3d 985 (6th Cir. 2018), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld dismissal of a claim by the beneficiary of a deceased employee that the employer breached its fiduciary duty under ERISA §502(a)(3), 29 U.S.C. §1132(a)(3) by failing to notify the decedent of his right to port or convert his group life insurance coverage to an individual life insurance policy after he ceased active employment.
Continue Reading Sixth Circuit Finds No Fiduciary Duty To Give Notice Of Conversion/Portability Rights On Termination Of Employment

In Munro v. University of Southern California, No. 17-55550, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 20522 (9th Cir. July 24, 2018), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that employees alleging an ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claim against their employer based on the employer’s administration of defined-contribution plans may not be compelled to arbitrate their collective claims under the terms of the arbitration clause in their employment contracts because their claims were brought on behalf of the plans and not on their own behalf.

The lawsuit was brought by nine current and former USC employees. The employees alleged that USC breached its fiduciary duty under ERISA in administering two defined-contribution plans – the USC Retirement Savings Program and the USC Tax-Deferred Annuity Plan (the “Plans”). The employees sought financial and equitable remedies to benefit the Plans and all affected participants and beneficiaries, including “a determination as to the method of calculating losses, removal of breaching fiduciaries, a full accounting of Plan losses, reformation of the Plans, and an order regarding appropriate future investments.”
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Holds That Employees’ ERISA Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claim Against Their Employer is Not Subject to the Mandatory Arbitration Clause in Their Employment Contracts