The Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) charged with ensuring the integrity of our nation’s private employee benefit plan system by enforcing the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). EBSA currently oversees approximately 801,000 pension plans and three million welfare plans which collectively hold $14 TRILLION in assets and cover 156 million workers, retirees, and their dependents.

EBSA has been highly successful in fulfilling its statutory duty of protecting workers’ employer- provided benefits. For example, in 2024, EBSA recovered nearly $1.4 BILLION in employee benefits through its (i) enforcement actions ($741.9 million), (ii) informal complaint resolution strategies ($544.1 million), (iii) voluntary fiduciary correction program ($44.3 million), and (iv) abandoned plan program ($53.5 million). Significantly, of this total, $432.6 million was recovered for 9,170 terminated vested participants in defined benefit pension plans. EBSA has also pursued and obtained non-monetary results in numerous cases, including eliminating illegal plan provisions and improving fiduciary governance.

Although EBSA often pursues voluntary compliance to correct ERISA violations and restore losses, where those efforts fail EBSA may recommend to the Solicitor of Labor that it commence litigation. In FY 2024, EBSA obtained 61 guilty pleas or convictions on cases it had recommended to the Solicitor.

Perhaps most importantly, EBSA has made itself readily accessible to the public through (i) numerous outreach events (2,157 in FY 2024 alone), (ii) its “Benefits Advisor” hotline (866-444-3272), and (iii) its website www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa. In FY 2024, the website received an estimated 2.96 million visitors.

The new administration has promised to cut government waste. However, it should proceed cautiously when it comes to EBSA as it is clearly a governmental agency that should be supported and not diminished in any way.

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