438
Opinion of the Court
The dissenting judge concluded that the District Court properly dismissed the complaint. He reasoned that an amendment to a pre-existing plan does not affect the availability of the plan's pool of assets for funding pre-existing obligations and cannot be characterized as a termination; interpreted Spink to stand for the proposition that the act of amending a plan does not trigger fiduciary duties; and observed that employees who contribute to a defined benefit plan do not have an interest in that plan's surplus.
The majority's decision is in tension with our decision in Spink, where we held that "the act of amending a pension plan does not trigger ERISA's fiduciary provisions," 517 U. S., at 891, and with other Circuits' decisions. See, e. g., Brillinger v. General Elec. Co., 130 F. 3d 61 (CA2 1997), cert. pending, No. 97-1834; American Flint Glass Workers Union v. Beaumont Glass Co., 62 F. 3d 574 (CA3 1995); Malia v. General Elec. Co., 23 F. 3d 828 (CA3), cert. denied, 513 U. S. 956 (1994); Johnson v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., 19 F. 3d 1184 (CA7 1994); Phillips v. Bebber, 914 F. 2d 31 (CA4 1990) (per curiam). We granted certiorari, 523 U. S. 1093 (1998), and now reverse.
II
Our review of the six claims recognized by the Ninth Circuit requires us to interpret a number of ERISA's provisions. As in any case of statutory construction, our analysis begins with "the language of the statute." Estate of Cowart v. Nicklos Drilling Co., 505 U. S. 469, 475 (1992). And where the statutory language provides a clear answer, it ends there as well. See Connecticut Nat. Bank v. Germain, 503 U. S. 249, 254 (1992).
A
Respondents' vested-benefits and anti-inurement claims proceed on the erroneous assumption that they had an interest in the Plan's surplus, which, with respect to the anti-inurement claim, was used exclusively to benefit Hughes.
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