PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What a Relief! 403(b) Plan Developments
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
DOL Clarifies Timing of Lifetime Income Disclosures in Benefit Statements
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Back to the Future: SECURE Act and SECURE Act 2.0
Three Timely Benefits Items Everyone Should Know
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – SEC enforcement
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Student Loan Benefits
On Thursday, April 17, a unanimous Supreme Court held that a less demanding pleading standard is applicable when plaintiffs bring an Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) class action under ERISA Section...more
ERISA class action litigation against retirement plan fiduciaries remains a prominent feature of the legal landscape this year. These lawsuits typically involve allegations that plan fiduciaries acted imprudently in...more
A New York federal court recently denied former hospital employees’ request for leave to file a Third Amended Complaint (“TAC”) after dismissing their Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) for lack of standing and failure to state...more
A third district court has dismissed with prejudice a complaint alleging that defendants breached their fiduciary duties under ERISA by offering 401(k) plan participants the option to invest in BlackRock LifePath Index Target...more
On remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Seventh Circuit issued its opinion in Hughes v. Northwestern University, concluding that participants in two Northwestern 403(b) plans plausibly pled fiduciary-breach claims based on...more
In a striking reversal of approach beginning in the summer of 2022, the District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin went from denying, in whole or in part, virtually every motion to dismiss ERISA lawsuits targeting...more
In Krutchen v. Ricoh USA, No. 22-cv-678, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206792 (E.D. Pa. Nov. 15, 2022), a Pennsylvania district court dismissed an ERISA excessive fee complaint for failing to provide enough information about alleged...more
In Matousek v. MidAmerican Energy Co., 2022 WL 6880771, __ F.4th __ (8th Cir. 2022), the Eighth Circuit joined the Sixth and Seventh Circuits in affirming dismissal of ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims alleging that the...more
Two recent district court decisions add to the growing number of courts granting motions to dismiss putative ERISA class actions challenging defined contribution plan fees and investment performance. These decisions from the...more
In Baumeister v. Exelon, No. 21-cv-6505, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176711 (N.D. Ill. Sep. 22, 2022) and Coyer v. Univar Sols. USA Inc., No. 22-cv-362, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175972 (N.D. Ill. Sep. 28, 2022), two Illinois district...more
The Supreme Court recently issued a unanimous decision reinstating an ERISA class action against fiduciaries of Northwestern University's 403(b) retirement plans. In Hughes v. Northwestern University, the petitioners alleged...more
A federal district court in Florida sent a proposed ERISA breach of fiduciary duty class action to individual arbitration on the basis of a plan arbitration clause that allowed for individual relief and plan-wide injunctive...more
On January 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a short unanimous opinion in Hughes v. Northwestern University. The importance of the opinion will likely be modest. At a basic level, all the Supreme Court did was reinstate a...more
The past 15 years have witnessed a steady stream of lawsuits alleging that employers’ 401(k) or 403(b) plans forced participants into underperforming or overpriced investment options, or that plan participants’ accounts were...more
Multiple new lawsuits have been filed since the start of 2020. Complications caused by the Coronavirus have not slowed the onslaught of 401(k) fee litigation across the country. Last month, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. was...more
In this edition of our Newsletter, we take a look at a pair of cases that, while unrelated, together remind us of the importance of having clear plan rules in place that reflect the plan sponsor’s intention. The first article...more
The plethora of class action lawsuits against colleges and universities over their 403(b) plans have brought a variety of settlements and wins by the defendant schools....more
Recently, the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit brought by former Georgetown employees under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) over fees and...more
If you’ve learned anything from me, just realize that anyone can be sued for anything. All you need to be sued is the purchase of a court index number and the filing and serving of a complaint....more
There have been around 20 class action lawsuits filed against universities for high cost 401(k) and 403(b) plans. The lawsuits are like shooting fish in a barrel because when you think about it, low costs and higher education...more
Once upon a time, our retirement plan worries were primarily generated by the U.S. Department of Labor (“DoL”) or the Internal Revenue Service and their regulatory and enforcement efforts. In more recent times we have seen...more
Editor's Overview - As we have observed on other occasions, the ERISA class action plaintiffs' bar has, for several years now, honed in on 401(k) plan fiduciaries and their decisions to select and retain investment options...more
Three more class action lawsuits were filed against the fiduciaries of plans maintained by institutions of higher education (University of Chicago, Princeton University, and Washington University in St. Louis). The complaints...more
Multiple large, class action lawsuits have been filed against prominent higher education institutions claiming fiduciary breaches under their Code Section 403(b) plans as a result of insufficient oversight of plan...more
As a result of rulings on motions to dismiss within a day of each other (May 10 and 11, 2017, respectively), Emory University and Duke University must continue to defend claims challenging aspects of their Section 403(b)...more