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Cash Balance Plans:  What Is Left After the Litigation?

Cash Balance Plans were conceived as a new approach to traditional defined benefit plan design in the 1980’s and were given further impetus by IRS regulatory action.  The “law” of cash balance plans became bogged down in the Courts, however.  The pace of cash balance conversion has slowed down, and the pace of freezing of all defined benefit plans has increased.  This panel included litigators who have represented each side of the cash balance litigation.  It examined, in the context of litigation, cash balance plan provisions in the new Pension Protection Act of 2006, H.R.4 and current regulatory developments, while focusing on “where do we go from here?”  The main litigation focus was on the recently issued 7th Circuit Opinion in Cooper v. IBM Personal Pension Plan. 

Topics Discussed:                              

• What is the Ever-Evolving Age Discrimination Standard?
• “Wear-Away” and Other Anti-cutback Issues
• Accrual Formula Litigation
• Is the Future Only a Defined Contribution Universe?
• Election Between Formulas
• Alternative Design

Moderator:   Bruce D. Pingree, Baker Botts, LLP, Dallas, TX

Speakers:    Barry L. Klein, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP,

                        Philadelphia, PA                 

                      Carol Connor Flowe, Arent Fox PLLC, Washington, DC

                      Thomas G. Moukawsher, Moukawsher & Walsh, Groton, CT

                      Elizabeth E. Drigotas, Deloitte Tax LLP, Washington, DC  

Mentor:         Diane Fuchs, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, Washington, DC