Class Action Challenges Propriety of 412(e)(3) Annuities for ERISA Defined Benefit Plans

Insurance Class Action Defense and ERISA Litigation
On August 1, 2012, a putative class action lawsuit was filed in the District of Connecticut challenging the propriety of certain insurance contracts used to fund defined benefit plans described in section 412(e)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. U.S. Telemanagement, Inc. v. Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co. et al., No. 3:12-cv-1110 JBA (D. Conn.). Because we perceive that the complaint is attacking the appropriateness of the product, as well as the specifics of the product that the named defendant sold, it is a lawsuit that potentially could have industry-wide implications. In addition, as plaintiffs in some of the ERISA revenue-sharing lawsuits have attempted to do, the complaint alleges that the insurance company that sold the annuities acted as an ERISA fiduciary of the plans. This lawsuit thus extends the attack on insurance companies, as seen in the revenue-sharing class actions, that attempts to convert service providers into fiduciaries.

412(e)(3) Plans and Annuities 
A 412(e)(3) plan is a tax-qualified, defined benefit pension plan that is funded with either annuities or a combination of annuities and life insurance. These sorts of plans are most often funded through annuities, and those annuities have come to be known as 412(e)(3) annuities, because of the section of the Internal Revenue Code that authorizes this sort of plan. Such 412(e)(3) plans are normally marketed to small businesses as vehicles that can provide large income tax deductions in connection with the establishment or continued funding of a pension plan. The annuities used to fund such a plan often are priced upon low assumed rates of return and other actuarial factors, which means that the employer is required to contribute a larger amount of money up front to fund the plan, and that in turn provides employers with larger tax deductions for their business.