This is the opening post of "For Your Benefit", a blog dedicated to following and commenting on litigation of employee benefit issues.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal featured a front page article on retirees whose pension plans were suffled from employer to employer as a result of various corporate transactions over the years. Now, many retirees are receiving letters from the pension plan administrator demanding payment of "overpaid" pension benefits. It seems that employers are now enlisting the services of third parties to audit plans to determine whether retirees are receiving the correct benefit. While an audit is not inherently anti-participant (it can uncover underpayments as well as overpayments), the results can leave retirees bewildered and scared, having come to rely on a certain benefit payment in ordering their financial affairs.
