On March 30, 2026, the Department of Labor advanced a rule guiding how private employers could expand their 401(k) and related retirement plans to allow employees to invest in private credit markets and other alternative assets. At the same time, the rule explains how the defined contribution plan fiduciaries would be shielded from Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)-protections. The move comes following an August 2025 Executive Order by President Trump that the addition of alternative investment options would benefit employees, given the opportunity for higher returns than traditional investments like the stock market. As this thinking goes, no longer
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National Employee Benefits and ERISA Litigator J.J. Conway Named to 2026 Leading Lawyers List
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—February 10, 2026— National employee benefits litigation and ERISA law firm, J.J.Conway Law, is pleased to announce that firm founder J.J. Conway has been named a 2026 LeadingLawyer, continuing his inclusion on the list for multiple consecutive years.
Conway was named a Leading Lawyer in the practice areas of class action and mass tort/plaintiffs inemployee benefits law, and insurance coverage law/insured. He has been included on the LeadingLawyers list since 2017. Less than 5% of all employers licensed to practice law in Michigan receive the distinction of beingnamed a
Continue Reading National Employee Benefits and ERISA Litigator J.J. Conway Named to 2026 Leading Lawyers List
National Employee Benefits And ERISA Litigator Looks At Pros And Cons Of Proposed Trump Administration Plan To Allow Use Of Pre-Tax 401(k) Funds For First-Time Home Buyer Down Payments
“The plan encourages homeownership while helping overcome the affordability issue; thecomplexities arise via the lending rules”
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—January 21, 2026—Amid a flurry of news last week was an interestingannouncement by President Trump: a proposed plan to allow the use of 401(k) plan money to be usedtoward the down payment of a home for first-time home buyers. Is it an election year attention grabberor a much-needed opportunity to loosen the grip of a stubbornly tight home market? National employeebenefits litigation and ERISA attorney J.J. Conway of Michigan-based J.J. Conway Law believes
Continue Reading National Employee Benefits And ERISA Litigator Looks At Pros And Cons Of Proposed Trump Administration Plan To Allow Use Of Pre-Tax 401(k) Funds For First-Time Home Buyer Down Payments
Surgeon’s Lawsuit Seeks to Overturn Longstanding but Obscure Michigan Supreme Court Decision on Illness Versus Injury in Determining Private Contract Disability Benefits
Michigan should reject ‘repetitive sickness’ as a bar to physician disability claims
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—October 29, 2025—The Nolan v. Provident Life and Accident Insurance Companylawsuit filed this week by national employee benefits litigation and ERISA attorney J.J. Conway onbehalf of a Michigan vascular surgeon seeks to overturn the Michigan Supreme Court ruling in Nehra v.Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company, 454 Mich. 110 (1997), which narrowly defines injuryso as to exclude repetitive injury disabilities prevalent in the nature of a surgeon’s work.
According to published studies, surgeons experience significantly higher rates
Don’t Rely on Your Employer to Track Your 401(k) Deductions
In my March 2023 Conway on Benefits column in the Detroit Legal News, I wrote about thediffering roles and responsibilities of employee benefits departments versus individualemployees regarding monitoring their benefits.
“There is an increasing tendency of the courts in ERISA cases to let a benefits department off thehook for big, consequential errors and to shift the blame upon the employee for administrativeerrors at the plan level…It is a reflexive approach that might work in crafting a written opinionbut is inconsistent with the real world setting and the working lives of employees in privatecompanies…”
I thought of that column when reading
Continue Reading Don’t Rely on Your Employer to Track Your 401(k) Deductions
J.J. Conway, National ERISA and Employee Benefits Litigator, Makes his Debut Appearance on Prestigious Best Lawyers® List
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—August 21, 2025—National employee benefits and ERISA law firm J.J. Conway Lawis pleased to announce that principal attorney, founder and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway hasbeen named to the 2026 Best Lawyers ® list, making his debut appearance in the 32 nd edition of The BestLawyers in America ® . Best Lawyers ® honors legal talent annually in more than 70 countries worldwideusing its Purely Peer Review ® evaluation process and is widely regarded by both clients and legalprofessionals as a significant honor, conferred on a lawyer
Continue Reading J.J. Conway, National ERISA and Employee Benefits Litigator, Makes his Debut Appearance on Prestigious Best Lawyers® List
National ERISA and Employee Benefits Litigator, J.J. Conway, Continues His Long Run on the Michigan Super Lawyers List
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—August 21, 2025—National employee benefits and ERISA law firm J.J. Conway Lawis pleased to announce that principal attorney, founder and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway hasbeen named to the 2025 Michigan Super Lawyers list. Peer-influenced and research-driven, the SuperLawyers selection process recognizes the top 5% of attorneys in Michigan.
Conway was recognized in the practice areas of employee benefits. He is a veteran of the Super Lawyerslist, first appearing as a Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2008 to 2011, and appearing on the SuperLawyers traditional list since 2013.
Continue Reading National ERISA and Employee Benefits Litigator, J.J. Conway, Continues His Long Run on the Michigan Super Lawyers List
ERISA Attorney Cites Exorbitant Management Fees, Withdrawal Restrictions, Plan Administration and Fiduciary Conflicts as Key Risks in New Era 401(k) Plans
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.— August 5, 2025— Employee benefits and ERISA attorney and litigator John Joseph(J.J.) Conway of Michigan-based J.J. Conway Law is not waiting for the current administration toofficially release executive orders and regulatory advisories allowing 401k accounts to invest in newretirement products before he calls out the move as risky.
“Allowing employees to invest their retirement savings in cryptocurrencies, alternative investments likeprivate equity and hedge funds, and precious metals is a seismic and risky shift in U.S. public policy,”Conway said. “With alternative investments, for example, the standard management fee on
Continue Reading ERISA Attorney Cites Exorbitant Management Fees, Withdrawal Restrictions, Plan Administration and Fiduciary Conflicts as Key Risks in New Era 401(k) Plans
A Summer in Benefits Law: Advocacy Starts With the Right Documents
Byline: Kelsey Dulz, Rising 2L at Detroit Mercy School of Law
Before this summer, I hadn’t given much thought about benefits law. I would be remiss ifI didn’t admit that any assumptions I had were rooted in the idea that the work mostlyinvolved being on hold with insurance companies all day. While I did, in fact, spendplenty of time on hold, I’ve come to understand just how complex, technical, andessential this area of law truly is.
This summer, I worked on client matters involving healthcare claims, disability benefits,pensions, and ERISA. Benefits law is deeply rooted in contract law, but the
Continue Reading A Summer in Benefits Law: Advocacy Starts With the Right Documents
Name Your Claim: How Being Able to Correctly Identify Your Diagnosis May Help Collect Your Benefit.
Picture this. A lingering, unidentified illness has left you unable to work. Maybe youhave tried repeatedly to return to work, but a host of symptoms is making it impossiblefor you to continue in your job. Yet, despite multiple doctor’s visits explaining thesymptoms – and perhaps even medical tests proving various conditions- you do nothave a precise diagnosis for the underlying cause of the disability. In other words, youhave many symptoms, but they seem to be incapable of a single diagnosis.
This can be a real barrier to collecting a long-term disability (LTD) benefit from youremployer-sponsored disability plan. Take, for example,
Continue Reading Name Your Claim: How Being Able to Correctly Identify Your Diagnosis May Help Collect Your Benefit.
Next in Line for an Employee Benefits Battle: Weight Loss Drugs
A buzzworthy topic in the past couple years, especially as celebrities – and perhapseven your family and friends – are slimming down noticeably and quickly: weight lossdrugs. GLP-1 drugs, commonly referred to by the brand names such as Ozempic,Mounjaro, Zepbound, and Wegovy, among others, have grown in popularity in recentyears as a tool for weight loss.
Deemed wonder drugs by some, perhaps it’s not surprising that these drugs come at ahigh price; so high, that more insurers are balking – and increasingly refusing – to coverthem. With an annual cost averaging $12,000 for GLP-1s, Blue Cross Blue Shield ofMichigan announced
Deemed wonder drugs by some, perhaps it’s not surprising that these drugs come at ahigh price; so high, that more insurers are balking – and increasingly refusing – to coverthem. With an annual cost averaging $12,000 for GLP-1s, Blue Cross Blue Shield ofMichigan announced
Continue Reading Next in Line for an Employee Benefits Battle: Weight Loss Drugs
Why Your Employee Benefits Case Requires an ERISA Litigation Attorney
Since its enactment 50 years ago, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) hasproven to be one of the most dynamic acts in legislative history. It quickly transformed into lawnot only protections for retirement plans but also safeguards for all insured employee benefits.It solidified the fact that insured employee benefits such as pensions, 401(k) plans, healthinsurance, life insurance, and long-term-disability plans are legal contracts between anemployer and an employee. When an employee benefits dispute arises, only an ERISA attorneycan provide the most comprehensive and legally sound, experience-based approach to obtainingfor employees the insured benefits that are rightly theirs.
Employee benefits
Employee benefits
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Billions of Dollars Hiding in Plain Sight: Federal Government Allows Private Insurers to Offset Their Financial Obligations With Social Security Disability Payments – Why?
Billions of Dollars Hiding in Plain Sight: Federal Government Allows Private Insurers to Offset Their Financial Obligations With Social Security Disability Payments – Why?
ERISA attorney explains how non-partisan policy change would save money and benefit disabled American workers
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—February 27,2025— As the search for savings in federal dollars zooms forward, employee benefits and ERISA attorney and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway of J.J. Conway Law, notes that a longstanding offset allowed by the government continues to reward private insurers with billions of dollars for not paying
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—February 27,2025— As the search for savings in federal dollars zooms forward, employee benefits and ERISA attorney and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway of J.J. Conway Law, notes that a longstanding offset allowed by the government continues to reward private insurers with billions of dollars for not paying
Are Insurance Company Denials Increasing?
Are Insurance Company Denials Increasing?
The senseless and tragic killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in December 2024 prompted conflicting outcries. The first was the terrible realization that the CEO was targeted for death solely for his executive employment at a health insurer. The second – one that sent shockwaves throughout the country – was the number of people online who appeared to have been sympathetic to the killing based on their own negative experiences with health insurance premium denials.
While the story has simmered down, news outlets are reporting that health insurance denials – and those of other insurers – do
While the story has simmered down, news outlets are reporting that health insurance denials – and those of other insurers – do
J.J. Conway Receives DBusiness Top Lawyers Honors for 2025
J.J. Conway Receives DBusiness Top Lawyers Honors for 2025
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—November 6, 2024—Employee benefits and ERISA law firm J.J. Conway Law is pleased to announce that principal attorney, founder and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway has been recognized among DBusiness magazine’s Top Lawyers for 2025. To compile its annual list, the magazine sent out a peer-review survey to certified attorneys throughout the metro Detroit area earlier this year to find and honor the top vote-getters in almost 50 legal practice areas. Inclusion is exclusive, based solely on the number
Royal Oak, Mich.—November 6, 2024—Employee benefits and ERISA law firm J.J. Conway Law is pleased to announce that principal attorney, founder and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway has been recognized among DBusiness magazine’s Top Lawyers for 2025. To compile its annual list, the magazine sent out a peer-review survey to certified attorneys throughout the metro Detroit area earlier this year to find and honor the top vote-getters in almost 50 legal practice areas. Inclusion is exclusive, based solely on the number
Continue Reading J.J. Conway Receives DBusiness Top Lawyers Honors for 2025
Open Enrollment? Job Change? Make Sure Benefit Choices Satisfy the Three Pillars of Financial Security
Open Enrollment? Job Change? Make Sure Benefit Choices Satisfy the Three Pillars of Financial Security
Did you know that up to one-third of an employee’s overall compensation is paid to them in the form of benefits? For employees facing open enrollment decisions this fall or eying new career opportunities, the financial value and accompanying costs of employee benefits should take center stage.
With health insurance premiums rising 7% in 2024 – after a similar increase in 2023, employees are paying an average 14% more on health insurance than they did in 2022 – while merit pay increases are averaging 3.5%
With health insurance premiums rising 7% in 2024 – after a similar increase in 2023, employees are paying an average 14% more on health insurance than they did in 2022 – while merit pay increases are averaging 3.5%