Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

With the exception of wages and salaries, you attract and retain qualified personnel primarily through employee benefits. If you want to provide benefits, you must know the fundamentals of establishing, amending or terminating an employee benefit plan. The following section presents an extremely brief overview of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA); the basic federal law that defines your duties in administering an employee benefit program.

ERISA¹ is by far the most comprehensive and important federal law relating to employee benefit plans. It deals with establishing, operating and administering two types of employee