April 22, 2025
A proposed class of nearly 2,000 Intel Corp. retirees urged a California federal judge on Monday to certify the retirees’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims alleging Intel relied on outdated mortality assumptions when it converted their single life annuities to a joint and survivor design, resulting in lower payouts.
Although lead plaintiff Gregg Berkeley initially filed a redacted version of the class certification motion in January, he filed an unredacted motion Monday. The unredacted motion asked U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila to certify a class of plan participants and their beneficiaries who are receiving a joint and survivor annuity that is less than the value of the single life annuity using the relevant interest rates and mortality tables as required under ERISA with an annual stability and August look-back period.
The motion also asked Judge Davila to appoint Berkeley as class representative and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and University of San Diego Law School professor Shaun Martin as class counsel.
The certification fight is the latest development in a lawsuit Berkeley filed in January 2023, alleging Intel and the plan’s administrative committee violated multiple ERISA provisions by underpaying pension benefits to married retirees under the Intel Minimum Pension Plan.
Under ERISA, joint and survivor annuities for married retirees must be “actuarially equivalent” to single life annuities paid to single retirees, and therefore, pension plan administrators must use certain “reasonable actuarial factors” to convert SLA payments to JSA payments, according to the lawsuit.
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Berkeley is represented by Michelle C. Yau, Daniel R. Sutter, Caroline E. Bressman and Allison C. Pienta of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and by Shaun P. Martin.
Read Intel Retirees Seek Cert. In ERISA Suit Over Annuity Changes.