Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan v. Hi-Lex Controls, Inc.

Issue: (1) Whether, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), a service provider that contracts with an employer to provide services to an ERISA plan exercises “control” over “plan assets” when the service provider (a) contracts with the employer for compensation for services provided to the plan, and (b) elects to exercise its contractual right to receive that compensation, rather than waiving that right; and (2) whether under the plain language of section 408 of ERISA, a provider of services to an ERISA plan can be held to have violated section 406 of ERISA, which states that a fiduciary to an ERISA plan may not “deal with the assets of the plan in his own interest or for his own account,” when it has received only “reasonable compensation” for its services.