Miller & Chevalier held the second teleconference in our ERISA University series, which focused on providing information on the latest trends in ERISA litigation and offering strategic insight into the issues affecting companies nationwide. 

This teleconference discussed who is a fiduciary, how an entity or person becomes a fiduciary, and why it is important to know. ERISA's fiduciary definition is a functional definition. What you do matters more than who you are with respect to a plan. The teleconference also addressed the Department of Labor's recently proposed regulation attempting to define the term fiduciary in a variety of contexts. The question of fiduciary status was discussed in the context of the following categories:

• Board of Directors;
• Plan sponsors;
• Third party administrators;
• Insurance companies; and
• Broker/Dealers.