Tag: retirement plan litigation

The case is yet another example of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) litigation to question the use of actively managed default investments.

Several interim rulings have been handed down in the case, which asks some key questions about the meaning of the term ‘actuarial equivalence’ in the context of ERISA litigation.

In addition to a $10 million payment to a settlement fund, the agreement calls for fee reviews and analyses to occur on at least a triannual basis.

In addition to the payment into a settlement fund, Princeton has agreed to what the settlement agreement calls “therapeutic relief,” including a pledge to not raise fees. 

The medical testing company is already facing scrutiny for its use of actively managed investments within its retirement plan; it is now the subject of a broader excessive fee lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges a series of bad-faith dealings were made that caused losses to the ESOP while benefiting executives.

It now appears the self-dealing lawsuit will proceed to discovery, as a judge has digitally denied John Hancock’s motion to dismiss.

Defendants are accused of failing to leverage the size of the plan to negotiate for lower investment and recordkeeping fees, among other things.

The lawsuit says the defendants’ did not disclose that they were retaining non-float and float cash interest and 12(b)-1 fees retirement plan accounts were earning.

The plaintiffs say fiduciaries of Koch Industries-affiliated DC plans allowed them to pay up to six times more than what similarly sized plans would have paid for such services.”

The case applied to several DB plans sponsored by the company and challenged the use of an "inherently unreasonable" mortality table for calculating benefits.

While not the smallest to face an excessive fee lawsuit in recent years, Biogen’s defined contribution plan held less than $1 billion at the start of the proposed class period.

Though similar to other lawsuits, arguments about excessive recordkeeping fees are featured early and prominently in the complaint and strongly criticize the recordkeeper, even though it is not a defendant in the case.

A federal judge said a participant in the firm's 401(k) plan sufficiently plead imprudence and disloyalty.

The basic contention of the lawsuit was that the company acted in a manner contrary to ERISA’s fiduciary requirements when it forced terminated employees to liquidate company stock holdings at an unfair price.

The plan being challenged in the latest fiduciary breach lawsuit held less than $300 million as of the start of last year, making it one of the smallest to become the target of an ERISA complaint.

The lawsuit also accuses plan fiduciaries of failing to monitor total plan costs.

The complaint has been dismissed without prejudice, however, and the plaintiffs have until July 28 to attempt to remedy failures in their lawsuit.

A similar lawsuit was filed in May against an investment manager and a different plan sponsor.

Following the filing of various class member objections, a federal district court has denied a settlement agreed to by the parties in an ERISA fiduciary breach lawsuit against Northrop Grumman.