Does an employer need to make clear to employees that the employer will have the final determination of employee benefits decisions?

MultiRegion, United States of America

The following excerpt is from Kinstler v. First Reliance Standard Life Ins., 181 F.3d 243 (2nd Cir. 1999):

We do not want to encourage an employer to insulate himself from effective appellate review through the abuse of vague phrases that fail to make clear to the employees that the employer will have the final determination of benefit decisions. Employees who lose promised benefits should not lose the additional benefit of judicial review because their employer reserved discretionary power to itself without making that reservation clear.

Bogue v. Ampex Corp., 976 F.2d 1319, 1325 (9th Cir. 1992).

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