The Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and advocating for pensioners, has taken a stand in a significant retirement benefits case involving the University of California Retirement Plan. Keller Rohrback has long supported the Center in its mission and has filed a friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief on behalf of the Center’s efforts to help stop the University of California Retirement Plan from forfeiting participants’ vested pension benefits.

Under the plan, a participant gains a vested interest in both their accrued-to-date pension benefits and their future accruals after five years of service. However, Defendants-Appellees argue that participants forfeit these vested benefits if they fail to elect to receive them at or before age 60, up until the date they apply for retirement benefits.

The brief states that the Ninth Circuit has found nearly identical pension plan provisions do not support the Defendants-Appellees’ argument; that forfeiture of vested benefits is highly unusual in retirement plans; and that such forfeiture undermines a retiree’s reasonable expectation of receiving the benefits promised under their plan.

Keller Rohrback is proud to stand with the Pension Rights Center in defending the rights of retirees and protecting the benefits they have earned.

You can read the brief here.