The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1975 (ERISA) is the basic law, signed into law by President Ford in 1974 to require that pension rights be vested and protected by a government agency, the PBGC. It requires that employers have written pension plan documents and adhere to certain guidelines, for instance regarding that is eligible for the employer’s plan, and at what point the employer’s contribution becomes the employee’s (more on this later). ERISA protects the employer’s pension or health plans assets by require that the primary responsibility of fiduciaries is to run the plan solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries.
Definition