Daniels-Hall

We must decide whether the National Education Association established or maintained an employee pension benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 by endorsing and aggressively marketing certain tax-sheltered annuities.

I

A

Both Jerre Daniels-Hall and David Hamblen (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) are members of the National Education Association (“NEA”) and employees of local public school districts. Daniels-Hall is an employee of the South Kitsap School District in Washington, and Hamblen is an employee of El Dorado Union High School District in California.

The NEA is a public employee labor union, consisting of over 3.2 million teachers, administrators, and other educators in public schools throughout the United States. The NEA provides numerous benefits to its members, including insurance coverage, discounts, and other services. Many of those benefits are provided through NEA’s Member Benefits Corporation (“NEAMBC”), a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA.

According to the Complaint, in the 1990s, the NEA, through the NEAMBC, worked with defendant Nationwide Life Insurance Co. (“Nationwide”) and, after 2000, with defendant Security Benefit…