A newly filed settlement agreement stipulates that Norton Healthcare and Lockton will each pay half of a total settlement of $5.75 million, which will be used to compensate plan participants who invested in overly expensive share classes.
The court found that plaintiffs were never given clear instructions for how to exhaust their administrative remedies for claims of fiduciary breaches.
The firm is accused of self-dealing in its retirement plan in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, to the detriment of plan participants.
The proposed settlement agreement also includes non-monetary terms.
Much of the text of the complaint is dedicated to detailing the reduction in the average fees paid by large U.S. retirement plans for both investments and administrative services.
Allegations in the underlying lawsuit match those included in an emerging class of cases filed against large employers across the United States.
The judge ordered that the case proceed to trial on the merits in the absence of a voluntary resolution of the dispute among the parties.
The decision means the fiduciary breach lawsuit filed against the Land O’Lakes dairy company will keep churning through the courts—or potentially reach a pretrial settlement.
The underlying lawsuit involves claims that plan fiduciaries failed to adequately protect a participant’s account, allegedly resulting in the theft of funds.
The $800 million retirement plan in question is used by participants dispersed across 65 independent U.S. Coca-Cola bottlers.
Participants of a terminated 403(b) plan say the plan sponsor's fiduciary breaches caused them approximately $4.6 million in losses.
For most claims regarding the use of alternative investments in Intel Corp.'s retirement plans, the judge found the plaintiffs didn't prove their comparisons were suitable.
The settlements include a provision that would bar Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia from continuing his efforts in a lawsuit he filed regarding the same matter.
Similar complaints have met different fates in the courts, based largely on the degree to which judges feel the preliminary case documents sufficiently allege that imprudent or disloyal actions may have occurred.
The lawsuit alleges that plan fiduciaries selected unproven TDFs for the plan, failed to monitor them and failed to replace them when they underperformed.
Emergence of the settlement details comes after the filing of a stay motion in December.
The lawsuit says the trustee failed to prevent a fraudulent distribution from a participant's account and is failing to take responsibility.
Associated Banc-Corp is also accused of allowing the plan to pay excessive recordkeeping fees to its subsidiary.
The ruling states there are genuine disputes of material facts as to make summary judgement, whether in favor of the plaintiffs or the defense, inappropriate at this time.
The lawsuit said the DST Systems Inc. profit sharing and 401(k) plans were invested too much in Valeant Pharmaceuticals.