Requires plans to provide participants with information about the plan including important information about plan features and funding. The plan must furnish some information regularly and automatically. Some is available free of charge, some is not.
*. Sets minimum standards for participation, vesting, benefit accrual and funding. The law defines how long a person may be required to work before becoming eligible to participate in a plan, to accumulate benefits, and tohave a non-forfeitable rightto those benefits. The law also establishes detailed funding rules that require plan sponsors to provide adequate funding for your plan.
*. Requires accountability of plan fiduciaries. ERISA generally defines a fiduciary as anyone who exercises discretionary authority or control over a plan's management or assets, including anyone who provides investment advice to the plan. Fiduciaries who do not follow the principles of conduct may be held responsible for restoring losses to the plan.
*. Gives participants the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty.
*. Guarantees payment of certain benefits if a definedplan is terminated, througha federally chartered corporation, known as the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
