Complaint Accuses Stifel of 401(k) Investment Mismanagement
The plaintiffs contend that the financial services firm ignored and retained underperforming investments at the expense of plan participants.
A participant in Stifel Financial Corp.’s employee retirement plan filed a complaint on February 20, accusing the financial services firm and its fiduciaries of breaching federal retirement law by retaining underperforming investment options that allegedly cost workers millions of dollars in lost savings.
Striplin v. Stifel Financial Corp. et al., filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that Stifel Financial Corp. and related plan fiduciaries failed to properly monitor and remove poorly performing investment options from the company’s profit-sharing 401(k) plan, harming thousands of employees’ retirement savings.
The complaint reflects ongoing activity in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation. In 2026, plaintiffs’ firms have secured a handful of settlements, and the 94 excessive fee and imprudent investment lawsuits filed last year represent a 42.4% year-over-year increase, according to Encore Fiduciary.
Alleged Long-Term Underperformance
According to the complaint, fiduciaries responsible for the Stifel Financial Profit Sharing 401(k) Plan failed to act prudently by retaining two actively managed investment options that consistently lagged their benchmarks: the American Century Large Cap Growth Pooled Account and the Artisan Mid-Cap Growth Pooled Account.
Both funds were added to the Stifel plan in 2014 and underperformed comparable market indexes and peer funds over extended periods, the complaint states.
The plaintiff, represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, alleges the funds’ weak performance significantly harmed participants’ retirement balances. The lawsuit estimates that the continued use of the challenged funds cost plan participants between $42 million and $134 million in lost retirement savings since March 2020 alone.
“Annual underperformance of this magnitude—1% and more—can torpedo a participant’s retirement savings by costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost returns over their careers,” said Charles Field, counsel for the plaintiff and co-chair of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight’s financial mismanagement and ERISA litigation practice group, in a statement. “Cases like this are an important tool for protecting the hard-earned retirement savings of employees.”
Striplin contends Stifel and related fiduciaries had an ongoing obligation under ERISA to monitor investment performance and remove imprudent options from the plan’s investment lineup. Instead, the complaint alleges, the fiduciaries ignored persistent underperformance and failed to act in the best interests of participants, violating their duty of prudence.
The plan covers more than 10,000 employees and beneficiaries and held more than $2.3 billion in assets as of the end of 2024, according to the filing.
Stifel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.