James Lukezic is a financial advisor that specializes in retirement plans, services, and fiduciary governance. He has over thirteen years of experience in the field, working for a variety of clients. Mr. Lukezic’s experience and skill set allowed him to become the Director of Investments with Oppenheimer & Company, Inc. Mr. Lukezic’s position within the company requires a substantial knowledge of ERISA, also known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
ERISA is an important part of retirement planning, as the act was designed to protect the assets of millions of Americans to ensure that the funds placed in retirement plans would still be there when employees retired. The real purpose of ERISA was to establish standards for retirement plans.
If an employer has a pension plan, ERISA enforces certain rules that must be associated with those plans. For instance, ERISA specifies at what time an employee must be allowed to become a pension plan participant, how long they have to work before they have a non-forfeitable interest in their pension, how long an employee can be away from a job before it affects benefits, and whether their spouse has a right to part of the pension in the event of death.
It is important to note that though ERISA establishes strict standards for a pension plan, it does not require an employer to establish a pension plan. IF an employer does choose to have a benefits plan however, they must abide by ERISA regulation. That is why fiduciary advisors like James Lukezic have such a familiarity with the act.
