Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) regulates employers and employee benefits security who offer pension or welfare benefit plans for their employees.
Title I of ERISA is administered by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) (formerly the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration) and
imposes a wide range of fiduciary, disclosure, and reporting requirements on fiduciaries of pension and welfare benefit plans and
on others having dealings with these plans.
These provisions preempt many similar state laws.
Under Title IV, certain employers and plan administrators must fund an insurance system to protect certain kinds of retirement benefits,
with premiums paid to the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
EBSA also administers reporting requirements for continuation of healthcare provisions,
required under the Comprehensive Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) and
the health care portability requirements on group plans under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
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