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Fiduciary Governance
The law firm of Schlichter Bogard & Denton has a new target—with some familiar accusations.
This time (Mills v. Molina Healthcare, Inc., C.D. Cal., No. 2:22-cv-01813, complaint 3/18/22) they are representing plaintiffs Michelle Mills, Coy Sarell, Chad Westover, Brent Aleshire, Barbara Kershner...
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A suit involving excessive fee allegations regarding a $15 billion plan has come to terms with a unique settlement structure.
The History
Back in June 2020, the $15 billion Costco 401(k) plan was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin by participant-plaintiff Dustin...
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It’s not all about “the Benjamins,” but a recent analysis of the nation’s private retirement system certainly puts a lot of emphasis on the accumulation of aggregate assets in retirement plans.
The Morningstar report—“Retirement Plan Landscape Report, An In-Depth Look at the Trends and Forces...
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Keep in mind that the Department of Labor (DOL) adjusted the civil monetary penalties for inflation for 2022.
The DOL adjusts the penalties for various violations of Title 1 of ERISA in accordance with the 2015 Inflation Adjustment Act, which provides a formula on how to determine the proper...
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After what seems a brief respite, another multibillion-dollar 401(k) has been targeted with an excessive fee suit.
The plaintiffs here—Keith K. Kruchten, Angel D. Muratalla and William Begani—are bringing suit on behalf of the $2.1. billion Ricoh USA, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan. They’re...
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Capozzi Adler has struck another excessive fee settlement with a billion-dollar plan.
This suit was filed by participant-plaintiffs Craig Parmer and Mark A. Laurance against the fiduciaries of the Land O’ Lakes Employee Savings & Supplemental Retirement Plan in May of 2020. In particular, they...
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For both small and large retirement plans, average total plan costs for 401(k)s continued to decline in 2021, with plan investment fees leading the way, according to the latest edition of the 401k Averages Book.
The 22nd edition of the book shows that all scenarios saw a year-over-year decrease...
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A $14 million excessive fee settlement has been approved by a federal judge, though there was an objection raised by one of the members of the participant class.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle signed off on the deal presented by the parties (plaintiffs Chandra V. Brown-Davis, Yolanda Brown...
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The devil may be in the details, but they occur against a bigger backdrop. At a Feb. 7 session of the 2022 NTSA Summit in Phoenix, American Retirement Association Chief Content Officer Nevin Adams offered attendees a look at some big picture “seismic shifts” affecting the retirement industry. ...
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Moving from one third party administrator (TPA) to another can be complicated. An expert panel recently offered some suggestions regarding handling such a transaction.
While the panel was addressing an audience largely composed of advisors, the discussion nonetheless may prove interesting and...
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Last week, a group representing advisors who sell annuities challenged the legality of the fiduciary rule in federal court—and now a second suit filed in a different federal court accuses the Labor Department of making law with a series of FAQs.
This suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the...
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Another excessive fee suit targets recordkeeping fees, actively managed funds, and a custom target-date fund series.
The suit here (Locascio v. Fluor Corp., N.D. Tex., No. 3:22-cv-00154, complaint 1/24/22) was filed by former participants Deborah Locascio and David Summers on behalf of the Fluor...
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Noting that “pouring the same old wine into a new bottle does not change the result,” a new lawsuit seeks to vacate the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule as expressed in PTE 2020-02.
The suit—filed by the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice Inc., joined by several advisors and advisory...
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Looks like those hoping for some clarity on a threshold issue involving ERISA fee litigation will have to wait for another day.
I’m referring, of course, to last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court on the case of Hughes v. Northwestern University et al.—a case that the law firm of Schlichter Bogard...
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The ink was barely dry on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in an excessive fee case—and a federal judge who “…been awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in Hughes v. Northwestern University,” has applied its ruling in refusing to dismiss another, similar suit.
The participant-plaintiffs[1] here (...
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401(k) plans must pass certain IRS-mandated nondiscrimination tests annually to confirm that highly-compensated employees (HCEs) do not disproportionately benefit and that no plan participant exceeded certain contribution limits. Often, these tests are completed as soon as possible following a year...
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In a ruling likely to make it harder—perhaps much harder—to dismiss excessive fee lawsuits, the U.S. Supreme Court has remanded for further consideration a lower court decision that had favored the fiduciary defendants.
In a unanimous decision[1] (Hughes v. Northwestern University et al., case...
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The addition of an arbitration clause has—for the moment, anyway—paused an excessive fee suit. But what’s interesting is how the court applied the terms of that clause.
The suit had been brought by plaintiffs Lawanda Holmes, Ani M. Miller and Brittany E. Roxbury (“by and through their attorneys...
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Another fiduciary breach suit has been filed involving a series of target funds with a short, and allegedly poor, track record.
This time it’s participant-plaintiff Joanna P. Mattson bringing suit “individually and on behalf of the Milliman, Inc. Profit Sharing and Retirement Plan and a class of...
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Against a backdrop of record-setting litigation and workforce management challenges, many retirement plan committees are asking what steps they can take to put participants on a path to creating a fully funded retirement income stream.
To address those challenges and more, a new blog post from...
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