ERISA Watch with Elizabeth Hopkins

This month’s episode is dedicated to Karen Ferguson, founder of the Pension Rights Center. The Pension Rights Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with their pension-related issues and advocating on their behalf. Our host, Elizabeth Hopkins, talks to Karen’s colleague, Norm Stein, about the Pension Rights Center and Karen’s legacy. To find out more about the Pension Rights Center and how you can help, cli...

On this special ERISA Watch episode, our host Elizabeth Hopkins examines the upcoming Supreme Court argument in the Hughes v. Northwestern University case, which will be held on Monday December 6, 2021. In Hughes, participants in a defined-contribution retirement plan allege the plan paid too much in fees for the investments offered, but the lower courts dismissed without even considering the merits of the case. 

Elizabeth speaks to...

On this month’s episode, our host Elizabeth Hopkins shines a spotlight on America’s other pandemic, the opioid crisis. Even beyond the tens of thousands of deaths annually, the true effect of this wide-reaching crisis stretches far beyond calculable figures. The multifaceted problem of addiction can only be addressed when we begin with increasing empathy and rejecting the impulse to stigmatize. 

Elizabeth has a conversatio...

In this special episode, host Elizabeth Hopkins acknowledges the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001.  This episode is also a check in on how well Congress is living up to its promises to more than 24,000 first responders and heroes. 

Introduced in 2006 and finally signed into law on January 2, 2011, the World Trade Center Health Program was designed to provide for the physical and mental healthcare for first responders...

In our 6th episode of ERISA Watch, our host Elizabeth Hopkins discusses one of the things that attracted her about the idea of coming to Kantor & Kantor after a very fulfilling time at the US Department of Labor. Liz appreciated the way the firm helps individuals and their families navigate getting the proper treatment they are promised from their employers through the insurance companies. Specifically, those living with eating...

In a special 4th of July episode, host Elizabeth Hopkins takes some time to share her thoughts about freedom, equality and labor & employment law.

Since July celebrates the day the draft of the Declaration of Independence was completed, Elizabeth took some time to re-read the document, which she calls one of the best breakup documents of all time, "full of hard truths and great one-liners."

Upon refl...

This this episode of ERISA Watch, host Elizabeth Hopkins asks if insurance companies live up to the promise instilled through ERISA, or do they take advantage of the peculiarities of trust law to avoid paying benefits.

In a short origin story of the concept of trust, courts of equity, and chancery law, Elizabeth tells how the federal law of ERISA grew out of these historical and societal concepts.

To illustrate ho...

Here in the United States we have some of the best surgeons, specialists, and some of the best, most innovative treatments in the world. 

But when the company that runs your health plan refuses to authorize these treatments, what does this mean for the very progress of medicine in this country?

In this episode of ERISA Watch, host Elizabeth Hopkins speaks with Aaron Monheim, a 34 year old husband and father of a t...

In this episode of ERISA Watch, host Elizabeth Hopkins asks: "When did modern Western medicine decide that mental health was something altogether different than health pertaining to anywhere else in the body?"

First Liz speaks with Dr. Joshua Warach, MD, a Neurologist from the Veteran's Administration about their ongoing effort to treat the veterans as holistically as possible, and to de-stigmatize mental he...

This premiere episode of ERISA Watch, host Elizabeth Hopkins discusses a real life example of how the federal law of ERISA works in the context of today's employee healthcare benefit environment. 

Elizabeth does this through a conversation with two clients, union members from the entertainment industry.  These men lost access to their healthcare benefits through language and rules with their plans that are quirky at b...

ERISA stands for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and governs most of our employee benefits. While this area of law may not seem as engrossing as other areas of law such as criminal law, the impact labor laws have on our lives are just as compelling and the stakes are just as high. This law blankets areas such as mental health, eating disorders, our retirement accounts, life insurance, and more. Erisa watch will ...