Courses

    This short introductory survey course will provide students with a background in the three major areas of Employee Benefits Law - qualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefits and executive compensation. The course will seek to explain the key fiduciary concepts underpinning this area of law, and will spend some time focusing on the basics of investment theory, the valuation of liabilities and defined benefit versus defined contribution structures. Students will also be introduced briefly to some key rules in the areas of tax and qualification, retirement plan distributions, reporting, disclosure, claims procedures, treatment of benefits in mergers and acquisitions, and litigation. The course is targeted at students who want to take the Certificate in Employee Benefits Law, and students with an interest in Tax, Estate Planning or Securities who want an overview of this area of law. The course will be held on the first two Fridays and Saturdays of the Fall semester and will be structured in 10 short modules. The exam will be in a multiple-choice pass-fail format and will follow about a week after the end of the course.