Nevin Adams

Legislation has been introduced in the Bay State that would expand the Commonwealth’s auto-IRA program for private sector workers and establish a 401(k) parallel, with an employer mandate. The first bill, SD 1902, introduced by state senator Patricia D. Jehlen, establishes the Massachusetts Secure... READ MORE

Putnam Investments, LLC has officially asked the nation’s highest court to weigh in on an issue on which district courts have split 6-4: Who bears the burden of proof when alleging losses due to a fiduciary breach? Indeed, the issue seems ripe for consideration. As Putnam states in its petition to... READ MORE

This is the time of year when resolutions for the cessation of bad behaviors and the beginning of better ones are in vogue. Here are four for plan fiduciaries to keep in mind all year long. Find your plan document(s) – and read them. One of the key guiding principles for plan fiduciaries is... READ MORE

Having repeatedly come up short, the plaintiffs in an excessive fee case have just come up short – again. The plaintiffs in this case have been at it since February 2016, when they, represented by the St. Louis-based litigation powerhouse Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, first challenged the $19... READ MORE

A sharp drop in stock price – and allegations of prior knowledge by senior management of misdealings – seem likely to produce additional litigation. The most recent example is a press release by the law firm of Zamansky LLC announcing that the firm has commenced an investigation of Johnson &... READ MORE

A few years back – when my kids were still “kids” – and believed in the reality of Santa Claus – we stumbled across an ingenious website. This was a website that purported to offer a real-time assessment of one’s “naughty or nice” status. Now, as Christmas approached, it was not uncommon for us... READ MORE

A plan sponsor who had been sued for allegedly breaching its ERISA fiduciary duties in shifting allocations in a plan’s custom target-date portfolios to “risky and high-cost” investments will have to go back to court. Suit ‘Able’ The original lawsuit, filed in November 2015 in the U.S. District... READ MORE

The participant-plaintiffs in a stock drop case have won a rare victory in federal court. The plaintiffs alleged that the IBM defendants (IBM itself, along with the Retirement Plans Committee of IBM; Richard Carroll, IBM’s Chief Accounting Officer; Martin Schroeter, IBM’s CFO; and Richard Weber,... READ MORE

The parties in another proprietary fund suit have come to terms, both financially and with an agreement for “ongoing prospective relief.” Under the terms of the settlement, Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. will cause its fiduciary insurance carrier (RLI Insurance Company) to pay $4.875 million... READ MORE