Was Varity acting as a fiduciary at the special meeting held with workers, or was it acting as an employer giving an optimistic view of a new venture?
Varity was acting as an ERISA fiduciary when it significantly and deliberately misled respondents and was not simply acting as an employer. The district court's factual findings adequately support the court's legal conclusion that, when Varity made its misrepresentations, it was exercising "discretionary authority" respecting the plan's "management" or "administration" within the meaning of ERISA Section 3(21)(A). The court found that the key meeting was largely about benefits, for the documents presented there described the benefits in detail, explained the similarity between past and future plans in principle, and assured the employees that they would continue to receive similar benefits in practice. To offer beneficiaries such detailed plan information in order to help them decide whether to remain with the plan is essentially an exercise of power "appropriate" to carrying out an important plan purpose. Reasonable employees, in the circumstances found by the district court, could have thought that Varity was communicating with them both as employer and as plan administrator.
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