Confusion Settled Over ERISA Provisions

A unanimous Supreme Court has ruled that an individual 401(k) plan participant can sue under ERISA to recover losses to his account allegedly caused by the plan fiduciary's failure to follow the participant's investment directions. The High Court's much-anticipated decision in LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Associates finally settles confusion over the reach of ERISA's remedial provisions with which courts and litigants have wrestled since the last time the Court considered the issue in the 1985 case of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Russell, 437 U.S. 134 (1985).