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My colleagues and I just spent two days in professional development sessions with our district’s elementary and secondary principals and their administrative staffs. The energy was high and the principals were engaged and dare I say enjoying our presentations. How much better could it get?
With their jam-packed schedules principals can be a tough sell but a unifying piece to remember is we are all in the business of educating our students. The administrators took the information we shared with them back to their campuses…and there they will spread it two-fold.
My advice is to enjoy the connection with these folks when you have the opportunity and make the most of the time you have with them. Win-win.
Edward A. Zelinsky is the Morris and Annie Trachman Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. He is the author of The Origins of the Ownership Society: How The Defined Contribution Paradigm Changed America. In this article, Zelinsky discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in MetLife v. Glenn. That decision, he concludes, unintentionally reinforces the trend from defined benefit to defined contribution plans. Under MetLife v. Glenn, employers which sponsor and administer defined benefit pensions operate under a conflict of interest which subjects their administrative decisions to greater legal scrutiny.
Wanda Glenn was an employee of Sears, Roebuck & Company (“Sears”) and, as such, was covered by the Sears long-term disability insurance plan. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (“MetLife”) both administered and insured the Sears plan. Ms. Glenn applied for continuing disability benefits. MetLife, as plan administrator, denied Ms. Glenn’s application for benefits which, if granted, MetLife, as the plan’s insurer, would itself have paid.
Ms. Glenn sued. Her lawsuit made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court which held in MetLife v. Glenn that, in light of the discretion confided to MetLife by the Sears plan, MetLife’s denial of Ms. Glenn’s disability benefit was to be reviewed judicially under a deferential “abuse of discretion” standard. However, the Court further stated, MetLife, as plan administrator, operated under a conflict of interest since any benefits MetLife granted as such administrator MetLife itself also paid as the plan’s insurer. Hence, in assessing whether MetLife, as plan administrator, abused its discretion, the courts must, among other factors, “take account of the conflict” MetLife faced as a plan administrator which was also the plan insurer. Such conflict of interest might “act as a tie-breaker when the other factors are closely balanced.”
MetLife v. Glenn has engendered extensive discussion. However, so far, one aspect of this decision has gone unremarked: MetLife v. Glenn is one more unintended push from our legal system, nudging employers away from traditional defined benefit plans towards 401(k) plans and other similar defined contribution retirement arrangements. After MetLife v. Glenn, the administrative decisions of employers sponsoring and administering defined benefit pensions will typically be subject to greater legal scrutiny than will be the administrative decisions of employers sponsoring and administering most 401(k) and similar individual account arrangements. This greater scrutiny incents employers to shift from their defined benefit pensions to defined contribution plans.
Embedded in the traditional defined benefit pension administered by the sponsoring employer is the conflict of interest stemming from the employer’s obligation, as plan sponsor, to pay the costs of the plan — just as MetLife, as insurer, paid from its premium revenues the costs of the Sears disability plan. In the defined benefit setting, greater plan distributions to participants and beneficiaries require greater employer contributions to the plan. Consequently, any distribution denial by the employer sponsoring a traditional defined benefit pension implicates the conflict of interest in which MetLife found itself: If the employer as plan administrator denies plan benefits, it thereby reduces its costs as plan sponsor.
In contrast, an employer sponsoring and administering a typical defined contribution plan usually has no such conflict of interest since the individual accounts of such a plan belong to the participants. If, for example, an employer, as administrator of a 401(k) plan, denies a participant a hardship distribution from the plan, that denial does not decrease the employer’s costs; it merely delays the distribution to the participant of his 401(k) account until later. Since there is no conflict of interest in that setting, under MetLife v. Glenn, the employer’s decision will receive greater deference if challenged in the courts.
An important factor causing the decline of traditional defined benefit pensions and the concomitant rise of individual account arrangements like 401(k) plans has been the heavy regulatory cost imposed on defined benefit plans. MetLife v. Glenn represents the latest such cost, an unintentional cost, perhaps a small cost, but a cost nonetheless. Employers who sponsor and administer defined benefit plans are now on notice that, because of their conflicts of interest, their administrative decisions will generally receive less deference from the courts than will the comparable decisions of their competitors sponsoring and administering 401(k) plans who do not operate under such conflicts of interest. By itself, this will rarely cause an employer to terminate its defined benefit pension and shift to an individual account arrangement. But, to paraphrase the Supreme Court, this is the kind of cost which can act as a tie-breaker when the decision is close.
Consequently, Metlife v. Glenn, by reducing the deference ultimately granted to employers which sponsor and maintain defined benefit pensions, represents one more small, but unintended, push away from such pensions.
Nothing especially horrendous happened, but when a string of coffee spillings, eyeglass misplacements, late to work gettings, rude cell phone intrusions, tailgatings, client kvetchings, kitchen sink pipe cloggings and gym shoe forgettings occur, nothing brightens your day quite like a cowboy bunny maniacally flailing on the back of an annoyed giraffe.
I received the first few copies of the book I illustrated for Stagger Lee Books in the mail today. I was delighted to see that the colors transmitted with very little change from my originals to the printed copies. The book will be available in 2008, but I will share a few images with you from time to time until then.
3 Comments on Song for A Giraffe, last added: 11/7/2007
Here's an illustration I whipped up for my 22 month old daughter. She's really into giraffes and requested I draw a "giraffe eating". Here's the result. -BP
1 Comments on hungry giraffe, last added: 9/29/2007
oh...what a lovely illo....so sweet...the giraffe's expresion is great!
NANCY LEFKO said, on 9/1/2007 1:05:00 PM
I knew your piece today would make me smile the instant it appeared on my screen...and I was right!! What a charming look in that sweet giraffe's eye...and the perfect amount of smile. Your illustrations of animals give them so much personality...very, very nicely done!
puddlebee said, on 9/1/2007 5:54:00 PM
oh, what a beautiful giraffe and sweet bird. i love how the giraffe's ear breaks the border. nice design!
-- kim
Sherry Rogers said, on 9/1/2007 6:14:00 PM
Ginger this is such a wonderful wonderful wonderful Illustration! Love everything about it!
studio lolo said, on 9/1/2007 11:13:00 PM
Don't you just love the long, lush lashes of giraffes? Hey...maybe you could illustrate long, lush lashes on llamas :) Great illo Ginger. And I want to thank you for a comment a week or so ago when you said you read my entire blog again. Wow! Thanks so much :)
isay said, on 9/1/2007 11:52:00 PM
humble and meek
sandcastle said, on 9/2/2007 3:07:00 AM
Hello Ginger, love your giraffe...you've given him a palpable spirit. I'm new at this stuff, but browse through Illustration Friday each week and am always inspired the creativity of the art, especially yours.
yvonne@sandcastle
Cathy said, on 9/2/2007 5:45:00 AM
Stunning work as ever, Ginger!
Also, I'm sorry about this, but I'm tagging you. If you'd like to play, and find out more, please visit my blog!
All the best,
Cathy xxx
Paula Pertile said, on 9/2/2007 9:14:00 AM
Nice one Ginger! Cute little grub-eater too.
md said, on 9/2/2007 6:20:00 PM
an oldie but goodie lov it and liked ur winston one too
rbaird said, on 9/2/2007 10:44:00 PM
My youngest one's favorite animal is a giraffe! This would be so cute in her room! Very nice.
Teri C said, on 9/3/2007 7:58:00 AM
I just love this and the alliteration is perfect!!
steve said, on 9/3/2007 11:47:00 AM
Good going Ginger--gorgeous!!
Tracy said, on 9/3/2007 5:59:00 PM
What a beautiful giraffe! My breath was taken away by how gorgeous she is! (I think it's a "she" because of her loving motherly gaze!) :) Beautiful piece...
Michelle said, on 9/4/2007 5:10:00 AM
You've done a wonderful job on the giraffe. Love it's big soft eye.The bird is nicely done as well. Great stuff!!
Ellen said, on 9/5/2007 8:32:00 AM
Gorgeous Ginger!
bee'nme said, on 9/6/2007 4:49:00 AM
Who knew there were so many G words in this piece! Really a cute one - I love it!
dintoons said, on 9/19/2007 1:37:00 AM
this is a really sweet depiction of the wonderful bond of love that exists naturally between God's creatures! beautiful artwork and and charming expressions... :o)
Paige Keiser said, on 9/19/2007 10:10:00 AM
Nicely done Ginger! What a sweet illustration, and I especially like the giraffe's eyes. :-)
It's Wonderful Ginger. ..simply Wonderful!
wow....it takes my breath away....there is so much joy on every page !!
This is so cool :D
and is also on Lookabook!!!!
COMPLIMENTS!!!
ciao
Manuela
There is a smile award waiting for you on my blog :) Thanks for bringing me JOY !!
i love every page of it, u are great!