ERISA does not require employers to establish retirement plans for its employees, and it does not require employers to pay particular benefits if they choose to establish a plan. ERISA does, however, impose some restrictions on employers who choose to provide a retirement benefit. One of those requirements concerns backloading, which is a concept only an actuary could love. Backloading rules, and remedies for violating them, combined to give rise to a wildly complicated class-action dispute called Kifafi v. Hilton Hotels Retirement Plan, — F.3d –, 2012 WL 6216631 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 14, 2012).
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