Judge Dismisses ERISA Lawsuit Against Trader Joe’s

The plaintiffs sued for failing to seek competitive bids for recordkeeping, but admitted to not knowing the amount Trader Joe’s paid in recordkeeping fees.

A lawsuit accusing the Trader Joe’s Co. of several fiduciary breaches, including the failure to seek competitive bids for recordkeeping, has been dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson said the plaintiffs did not have sufficient evidence to corroborate the allegations. “The court therefore finds that plaintiffs’ allegations regarding the allegedly excessive recordkeeping fees are insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss,” he wrote.

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Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in January, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) lawsuit alleged two primary breaches—imprudence in the selection of investment options and a lack of care given to monitoring the services and fees paid by the plan. Plaintiffs of the complaint, which was filed on behalf of all participants in the Trader Joe’s defined contribution (DC) plan, also stated plan managers had paid unreasonable recordkeeping fees to the company’s investment manager, Capital Research; failed to seek competitive bids every three years for recordkeeping; and allowed Capital Research to collect and invest excessive fees before giving them back to the plan. Capital Research was not listed as a defendant in the case.

In the complaint, plaintiffs admitted to not knowing the amount Trader Joe’s paid to Capital Research in recordkeeping fees. Instead, the plaintiffs assumed the plan paid “roughly $140 per participant” in recordkeeping fees. In response, Anderson said the guess had no factual basis and failed to claim a breach of fiduciary duties in connection with the recordkeeping arrangement between Trader Joe’s and Capital Research.

The plaintiffs’ next complaint on seeking competitive bids was dismissed on the motion that it “simply recites legal conclusions and does not allege any facts suggesting that the plan fiduciaries could have obtained less expensive recordkeeping services elsewhere through competitive bidding,” Anderson wrote. Additionally, he found no facts “allegedly showing the plan fiduciaries failed to consider putting the fee structure out for competitive bidding or failed to negotiate a reasonable fee structure with Capital Research.”

In response to the complaint on the cost of mutual fund share classes, Anderson found that the plaintiffs “alleged no specific facts” to suggest Trader Joe’s infringed on its fiduciary duty by allegedly failing to offer institutional class shares as opposed to investor class shares.

On Capital Research’s collection of fund revenue, Anderson again said the plaintiffs do not “allege any facts” to support their claim that Capital Research’s repayment of money to participants demonstrated an “admission of excessive fees,” and a breach of duty of prudence.

As for the claim that Trader Joe’s failed to monitor its fiduciary members and process, Anderson stated that because plaintiffs “failed to plead sufficient facts as to their other allegations, they cannot maintain a claim that [Trader Joe’s] failed to monitor their fiduciaries.”

Anderson said he couldn’t conclude that an amendment complaint would be “futile,” so he granted plaintiffs leave to amend. He gave the plaintiffs 14 days from the date of his order to file a first amended complaint.

Barrick Gold Accused of Fiduciary Failures Regarding 401(k) Investments

The lawsuit alleges the defendants did not try to reduce the plan’s expenses or exercise appropriate judgment to scrutinize each investment option that was offered in the plan to ensure it was prudent.

An Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) lawsuit has been filed against Barrick Gold of North America and other fiduciaries of its defined contribution (DC) retirement plans.

The complaint notes that at the end of 2017 and 2018, the plan had more than $619 million and $560 million, respectively, in assets under management (AUM), qualifying it as a large plan in the DC plan marketplace. As such, it argues, the plan had substantial bargaining power regarding the fees and expenses that were charged against participants’ investments. The lawsuit alleges the defendants did not try to reduce the plan’s expenses or exercise appropriate judgment to scrutinize each investment option that was offered in the plan to ensure it was prudent.

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The plaintiffs allege that during the class period, the defendants, as fiduciaries of the plan, breached their ERISA duties by failing to objectively and adequately review the plan’s investment portfolio to ensure that each investment option was prudent in terms of cost and by maintaining certain funds in the plan despite the availability of identical or similar investment options with lower costs and/or better performance histories.

In addition, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to utilize the lowest cost share class for many of the mutual funds within the plan and failed to consider collective trusts, commingled accounts or separate accounts as alternatives to the mutual funds in the plan, despite their lower fees.

Specific allegations in the complaint are nearly identical to those posed in a similar lawsuit recently filed against the Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) Retirement Savings Plan. The law firm Capozzi Adler represents plaintiffs in both lawsuits.

As in the PPD lawsuit, the current complaint notes that the funds in the plan have stayed relatively unchanged since 2014. The complaint includes a chart of comparisons as of 2018 that plaintiffs say shows funds in the plan were much more expensive than comparable funds found in similarly sized plans. The plaintiffs also say prudent retirement plan fiduciaries will search for and select the lowest-priced share class available, but allege that in several instances during the class period, the defendants failed to prudently monitor the plan to determine whether it was invested in the lowest-cost share class available for the plan’s mutual funds.

In addition to failing to investigate the availability of lower-cost collective trusts or separate accounts, the complaint says plan fiduciaries failed to use lower-cost passively and actively managed funds in the plan’s investment menu.

The lawsuit also includes a claim that the defendants failed to monitor or control the plan’s recordkeeping expenses.

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