What Is ERISA Disability? And Who Is It Designed To Protect?
My name is Brandon Osterbind. I’m an injury and disability attorney in Central Virginia. We help people whose claims have been denied recover long-term disability insurance coverage from their employer’s insurance policy. Today, I want to answer a question that I hear all the time. A lot of people wonder, “What is ERISA disability?”
What is ERISA disability?
ERISA is a federal statute that simply stands for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA was created with the intent to protect employee benefits that are provided by employers. Those things might include retirement or health insurance, or the kind of long-term disability insurance we’re talking about here.
Designed to protect employees
ERISA is a federal statute that is designed to protect people from unsavory practices by their employers. And it essentially creates a fiduciary duty between the employer and the employee. The employer often delegates that fiduciary duty to an insurance company for things like long-term disability insurance.
The act itself was designed to protect the employee. And there are things in the act that do, in practice, help protect the employee. These include the fiduciary relationship and the duty that the employers owe to their employees to make sure that any claim is handled properly.
If you have questions regarding whether your long-term disability insurance policy is an ERISA policy or if it’s a non-ERISA policy, give us a call, shoot us an email or ask in the comment section below. We’ll be happy to talk to you and help you get to the bottom of it.
