Plan fiduciaries have become more aggressive in their attempts
to recover mistaken overpayments to retirees. The plan may elect to
recoup the overpayments by reducing future pension payments, but
what if the participant received a lump sum or the recoupment
method will not work, for example, because the retiree is
elderly and the value of the future payments is not large, or
because the payee wasn't really entitled to any vested
pension?
I have previously written about obstacles
fiduciaries may face if requests for repayment have been
ignored and they decide to sue to recover the overpayments. These included the statute of
limitations, whether they failed to provide a process for
challenging the amount or existence of the overpayment, and the
possibility of equitable counterclaims that would prevent the
fiduciaries from adjusting the payments. Recent actions by
the U.S. Supreme Court may make it even more difficult to prevail
in a lawsuit to recover pension
