Tag: ESOPs

In April, a federal judge found First Bankers Trust Services Inc. liable for causing an ESOP to overpay for shares of the company’s stock.

The legislation would reform the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 701, which imposes a slew of regulations on small businesses, especially newly formed start-ups.

A federal court held that First Bankers breached its fiduciary duties to the plan’s participants by failing to conduct a prudent investigation into the fair market value of...

The plaintiffs did not meet pleading standards set forth in Fifth Third v. Dudenhoeffer, according to a district court opinion.

The firm has been deemed liable for violations stemming from a “rushed” ESOP valuation—although some claims of wrongdoing leveled against the firm at trial were denied.

Among other things, the plaintiff alleges the plan committee ignored the numerous warning signs that Chesapeake was an imprudent investment for retirement assets, and allowed the plan to...

For claims alleging a fiduciary breach based on non-public information, the high court has held that plaintiffs must plausibly allege an alternative action fiduciaries could have taken and...

The underlying stock drop litigation had already seen multiple rulings from a New York district court and the 2nd Circuit. 

According to both district and appellate court rulings, the ESOP fiduciaries knowingly offered the employer stock at an inflated price. 

This is the question in a petition before the Supreme Court in a case involving a leveraged buyout of an ESOP.

The U.S. Department of Labor is suing the fiduciaries of a Vermont employee stock ownership plan for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

To appreciate the riskiness of a stock intimately involves its market valuation, and to argue that the ESOP fiduciaries should have been able to outguess the market’s valuation...

The fiduciaries did not follow terms of the plan document when paying out participants upon plan termination, a federal court found.

Wells Fargo faces a third ERISA stock drop lawsuit in the U. S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

This is a friendly reminder that 2017 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Sponsor of the Year nomination forms are still available. Don't wait to nominate—time is running out! 

The owner of Sentry Equipment Erectors, Inc. sold his shares to the plan at $406 per share, much greater than prices at which participants had previously sold their...

Another participant in a Wells Fargo retirement plan is accusing the bank of breaching its fiduciary duty in the management of company stock offered as a retirement plan...

The judge noted that the “right to a particular form of investment (e.g., investment in employer stock or securities)” is not a protected benefit under the IRC anti-cutback...