Happy Birthday ERISA

40 years ago today, President Gerald R. Ford signed the Employee Retirement Security Income Act of 1974 into law. ERISA’s principal focus was on pension plan regulation, but the law’s scope also encompassed private sector health and other so-called employee welfare benefit plans. Business Insurance provides a nice retrospective on ERISA, which was enacted 15 years after our beloved Federal Employee Health Benefits Act of 1959.  Both laws have become much more complicated since then which always is good news for lawyers.