Supreme Court to Review Intel 401(k) Case

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a closely watched retirement plan lawsuit against Intel Corp., taking up a case that could reshape how easily workers can sue employers over allegedly imprudent investment options in 401(k) plans.

The justices confirmed on Friday that they will consider an appeal brought by two former Intel employees who accuse the company’s retirement plan fiduciaries of breaching their duties by allocating plan assets to hedge funds and private equity. A federal appeals court previously dismissed the claims, finding that the plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege a violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

The case, Anderson v. Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee, has been winding through the courts for more than six years and has already reached the Supreme Court once before. In 2020, the Supreme Court addressed pleading standards for ERISA fiduciary breach claims in an earlier phase of the dispute.

In the latest appeal, the court will consider the “meaningful benchmark” requirement that lower courts have applied when evaluating claims that retirement plan investments were mismanaged. Under that standard, plaintiffs must identify comparable alternative investments to show that plan fiduciaries acted imprudently. The Intel plaintiffs argue that the benchmark test has been applied inconsistently across federal circuits and sets too high a bar for workers seeking relief.

In May, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court ruling in Intel’s favor, emphasizing that ERISA’s duty of prudence focuses on the fiduciary decisionmaking process, rather than investment outcomes. The three-judge panel also concluded that the plaintiffs failed to show that Intel’s use of private equity and hedge funds in custom target-date funds performed worse than appropriate comparators.