Cite as: 526 U. S. 358 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
"mandat[e] employee benefit structures or their administration"). The Ninth Circuit's statement is not firmly grounded.
As persuasively urged by the United States in its amicus curiae brief, deeming the policyholder-employer the agent of the insurer would have a marked effect on plan administration. It would "forc[e] the employer, as plan administrator, to assume a role, with attendant legal duties and consequences, that it has not undertaken voluntarily"; it would affect "not merely the plan's bookkeeping obligations regarding to whom benefits checks must be sent, but [would] also regulat[e] the basic services that a plan may or must provide to its participants and beneficiaries." Brief 27. Satisfied that the Elfstrom rule "relate[s] to" ERISA plans, we reject the Ninth Circuit's contrary determination.
* * *
For the reasons stated, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
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