Erisa Is A Friend Of Mine

Employee benefit disclosure obligations were first developed when man battled dinosaurs for control of the Earth. Okay, not really, but they were first imposed when snail mail was the predominant form of employer-to-employee communication ... and the rules haven’t evolved much since then. In this episode, Ethan McWilliams, a former ERISA investigator for the DOL, joins Ed and Scott to dive into the requirements for employers to electronically distribute key benefit disclosures. Can disclosures be sent via email, posted on an intranet, transferred through Vulcan mind-melding? What determines if an employee has adequate access to the employer’s e-information system to permit e-disclosures? What constitutes an affirmative opt-in for employees without that access? Are employers responsible for knowing if the employee reads the disclosure? What’s the worst that happens if employers throw caution to the wind and make e-disclosures outside the rules?