Also known as: pensio · pensions · pensioner · pensioners · annuity · retirement benefit
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A fixed sum paid regularly to a person or the person's beneficiaries, especially by an employer as a retirement benefit. The term also encompasses the underlying plans and trusts that fund such payments for current or former directors, officers, employees, and agents.
Premier Manufacturing's board votes to establish a pension plan for its employees. The corporation uses its statutory power to fund the plan with regular contributions that will provide fixed retirement payments to workers after they leave the company. The plan satisfies the requirement that the payments benefit current and former employees.
A disabled veteran petitions the Secretary of War for placement on the federal pension list after Congress authorizes payments for wartime service. The court considers whether mandamus lies to compel the executive officer to act on the claim. The pension right turns on compliance with statutory procedures rather than executive discretion alone.
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David Egelhoff designates his wife Donna as beneficiary of his Boeing pension plan and life insurance policy. After their divorce, David dies without changing the designation. State law automatically revokes the ex-spouse designation, but ERISA preempts that rule for the ERISA-governed pension, so Donna receives the benefits.
George Eldridge receives Social Security disability benefits that include references to his private pension income. The agency terminates benefits after an administrative review without an evidentiary hearing. The Court weighs the private interest in continued pension-linked income against the government's interest in efficient administration when deciding what process is due.
Congress enacts a statute allowing a concurrent resolution to disapprove schedules that would increase premiums for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The Chadha decision examines whether such legislative veto provisions violate separation of powers. The pension-related rule illustrates one of many statutes using the concurrent-resolution mechanism.
A corporation funded partly through employee pension plans runs television ads supporting a political candidate. Shareholders who hold stock only through mutual funds and pension intermediaries have limited ability to monitor or object to the expenditures. The decision addresses whether the First Amendment protects such corporate advocacy.
ERISA preempts state laws that automatically revoke an ex-spouse as beneficiary of an ERISA-governed pension plan upon divorce. The plan documents control, so the designated beneficiary remains entitled to the benefits even after divorce unless the plan itself is amended.
A court examines the parties' economic circumstances and any evidence of nondisclosure or undervaluation of pension assets at the time of signing. Substantial post-signing discovery that one spouse undervalued a pension can support a finding of unconscionability when it produces a markedly unfair division.
A corporation possesses express statutory power to pay pensions and establish pension plans for current or former directors, officers, employees, and agents. This authority allows the corporation to create and fund the plans as part of its ordinary business operations.
Pension and employee-benefit accounts with death benefits function as will substitutes and need not comply with will execution formalities. The beneficiary designation is valid upon the employee's death even though the employee retained lifetime control over the account.
…Congress and general principles of law. This view is not novel. In 1792 an act directing the Secretary at War to place on the pension list disabled officers reported by the circuit courts was deemed unconstitutional so far as it imposed duties on the courts, and after a repeal Congress provided a different mode and…