892
Opinion of the Court
B
Spink also alleged that the members of Lockheed's Retirement Committee who implemented the amended Plan violated § 406(a)(1)(D). As with the question whether Lockheed and the board members can be held liable under ERISA's fiduciary rules, the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the Retirement Committee members violated the prohibited transaction section of ERISA without making the requisite finding of fiduciary status. It is not necessary for us to decide the question whether the Retirement Committee members acted as fiduciaries when they paid out benefits according to the terms of the amended Plan, however, because we do not think that they engaged in any conduct prohibited by § 406(a)(1)(D).
The "transaction" in which fiduciaries may not cause a plan to engage is one that "constitutes a direct or indirect . . . transfer to, or use by or for the benefit of a party in interest, of any assets of the plan." 29 U. S. C. § 1106(a)(1)(D). Spink reads § 406(a)(1)(D) to apply in cases where the benefit received by the party in interest—in this case, the employer—is not merely a "natural inciden[t] of the administration of pension plans." Brief for Respondent 10. Lockheed, on the other hand, maintains that a plan administrator's payment of benefits to plan participants and beneficiaries pursuant to the terms of an otherwise lawful plan 5 is
wholly outside the scope of § 406(a)(1)(D). See Reply Brief for Petitioners 10. We agree with Lockheed.
Section 406(a)(1)(D) does not in direct terms include the payment of benefits by a plan administrator. And the surrounding provisions suggest that the payment of benefits is
5 As Lockheed notes, see Brief for Petitioners 13; Reply Brief for Petitioners 7, n. 4, there is no claim in this case that the amendments resulted in any violation of the participation, funding, or vesting requirements of ERISA. See 29 U. S. C. §§ 1051-1061 (participation and vesting); §§ 1081- 1086 (funding).
Page: Index Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007