18) is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry.

It contains rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans.

The movement for pension reform gained some momentum when the Studebaker Corporation, an automobile manufacturer, closed its plant in 1963.

After three years the investigation had failed to find any wrongdoing,[2][3] but had resulted in several proposed laws, including McClellan's October 12, 1965 bill setting new fiduciary standards for plan trustees.

[4] Additionally, due much in part to his "dismay" over Barasch's sole control over union benefit plan funds,[5][6] Senator Jacob K. Javits (R) of New York also introduced bills in 1965 and 1967 increasing regulation of welfare and pension funds to limit the control of plan trustees and administrators and to address the funding, vesting, reporting, and disclosure issues identified by the presidential committee.

[7][8] His bills were opposed by business groups and labor unions, which sought to retain the flexibility they enjoyed under pre-ERISA law.

ERISA was enacted in 1974 and signed into law by President Gerald Ford on September 2, 1974, Labor Day.

Later amendments to ERISA require an employer who withdraws from participation in a multiemployer pension plan with insufficient assets to pay all participants' vested benefits to contribute the pro rata share of the plan's unfunded vested benefits liability.

[13] ERISA has led to tension with reforms which partner with the states, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

During the 1990s and 2000s, many employers who promised lifetime health coverage to their retirees limited or eliminated those benefits.

Every year, the employer was required to contribute the amount necessary to keep the funding standard account from falling below $0 at year-end.

If a plan is fully funded, the minimum required contribution is the cost of benefits earned during the year.

If a plan is not fully funded, the contribution also includes the amount necessary to amortize over seven years the difference between its liabilities and its assets.

ERISA Section 514 preempts all state laws that relate to any employee benefit plan, with certain, enumerated exceptions.

Second, a state law relating to an employee benefit plan may be protected from preemption under ERISA if it regulates insurance, banking, or securities.

[20] The result of ERISA preemption is that the only remedy available to a covered person who has been denied benefits or dropped from coverage altogether is to seek an order from a federal judge (no jury trial is permitted) directing the Plan (in actuality the insurance company that underwrites and administers it) to pay for "medically necessary" care.

[23] Although Americans normally take for granted the right to testify on their behalf, plaintiffs have no right to present live testimony in ERISA bench trials, in which the judge simply reads through the documents that formed the record originally before the ERISA plan administrator and performs de novo review.

[25] It has been argued that in the case of health benefits, the effect of all of this may paradoxically have been to leave plan participants worse off than if ERISA had not been enacted.

[citation needed] Many consumer and health care advocates have called for a "restoration of the freedom of contract enforcement," to the 75% of Americans insured under these work place group plans-in effect, a repeal of the ERISA preemption.

As a result, private employers in Hawaii are bound by the rules of that state law in addition to ERISA.

The exemption also freezes the law in its original 1974 form, meaning the Hawaii legislature is not able to make non-administrative amendments without Congressional approval.

The following are some of the ways in which it achieves that goal: Title I also includes the pension funding and vesting rules described above.

The United States Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration ("EBSA") is responsible for overseeing Title I, promulgating regulations implementing and interpreting the statute as well as conducting enforcement.

The changes include the following: Title III outlines procedures for co-ordination between the Labor and Treasury Departments in enforcing ERISA.

After an individual passes the two exams and completes sufficient relevant professional experience, she or he becomes an Enrolled Actuary.