Employees of a company bought by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. can sue Berkshire on the grounds it violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in freezing the purchased company's pension plan, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Employers that derisk their pension funds now have to disclose risk transfer information to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. as part of paying their annual pension insurance premiums to the federal agency.

The roughly 30% of eligible salaried retirees who have accepted General Motors Co.'s offer to convert their monthly annuity to a lump sum benefit is a solid response to the trailblazing approach that other companies are expected to follow, observers say.

The PBGC is taking over and terminating a pension plan sponsored by B'Nai B'rith International, a Washington-based Jewish advocacy organization.