This guide is a working reference to employee benefit plan law for participants, plan sponsors, and the counsel who advise both. It begins by sorting plan types, because welfare and pension plans, insured and self-funded arrangements, and covered and excluded plans follow different rules. Disclosure chapters set out what documents a participant may compel and the penalty for non-production. Claims chapters walk the procedure from initial determination through internal appeal, with the content requirements for a denial letter, the deadline structure, and the record-closing rule that makes the appeal the entire case. Review chapters explain de novo and abuse-of-discretion standards, the effect of a discretionary clause, and how a structural conflict is weighed. Remedies and preemption chapters set out what is recoverable and why state-law claims usually disappear, including the saving and deemer clauses that decide whether state insurance regulation reaches a plan. Fiduciary chapters cover the duties, prohibited transactions, and the settlor-fiduciary line. Protection chapters address vesting, accrual, spousal rights, domestic relations orders, and continuation coverage.