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ARTICLE · 19 MAY 2014

Being Blameless Is Not Enough

Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren SC
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You can be a retired plan participant, entirely blameless, and have done everything correctly, but that will not let you hold on to benefit overpayments to you.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Timothy Muth
Timothy Muth
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You can be a retired plan participant, entirely blameless, and have done everything correctly, but that will not let you hold on to benefit overpayments to you, based on an actuary's miscalculation.  That was the holding in Groves v. Kaiser Found. Health Plan Inc. (N.D. Cal., 2014), decided on March 24, 2014. 

The plaintiff Ramona Groves had received a benefit estimate from the Kaiser plan actuaries stating that her lump sum benefit upon early retirement would be approximately $750,000. She inquired about this benefit several times, and the number was confirmed each time, and Groves then elected to give up her well-paying job, take early retirement and receive the promised benefit. One condition of taking early retirement was that she could not re-apply for employment with Kaiser in the future.

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