Issues involving the use of pension plan assets are frequently contentious. For over a decade, pension plans and the employers who sponsor those pension plans have increasingly found themselves as the target of litigation. Until recently, such litigation has been all about surplus. Recently, however, we have begun to see evidence of a new wave of litigation against employers related to the use of pension plan assets to pay plan expenses. In many ways, this is a natural progression. Indeed, while not every plan has a surplus, every plan has costs that need to be paid.