Chartis Enhances Fiduciary Liability Coverage for Organized Labor

Chartis has made two enhancements, developed by its Executive Liability division, to its fiduciary liability insurance solutions for organized labor. The first is the fiduciary liability insurance edge endorsement, which when added to the Chartis insurers’ fiduciary liability policy for organized labor, provides coverage enhancements to address the growing exposures facing trustees of multiemployer plans. The second, a multiemployer plan panel, is a pre-approved panel of attorneys with specific expertise in defending litigation against multiemployer plan trustees.

By covering plan trustees who are alleged to have acted as plan fiduciaries, but who are later proven to have been acting only in a business or ‘settlor’ capacity, the new endorsement eliminates a potential Catch 22—that a successful defense could result in a plan trustee losing coverage. The endorsement also protects against suits alleging violations of both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (‘ERISA’) and the Labor Management Relations Act, and provides broadened coverage for penalties, including those under recently passed health care reform law.

The multiemployer plan panel is a supplement to Executive Liability’s existing panel of fiduciary liability attorneys. The pre-approved multiemployer plan panel attorneys maintain not only the extensive ERISA litigation experience that Chartis requires of all of its fiduciary panel firms, but also a deep understanding of the unique challenges facing trustees of multiemployer plans.