Retirement Plan Investment and Excessive Fee Litigation: Recent Developments

BARBRI

This CLE course will discuss the current landscape of retirement plan investment and fee litigation. The discussion will focus on the investments and fee litigation arising from the offering of investment products and services in client plans. The panel will discuss Anderson v. Intel Corp., Hughes v. Northwestern University, Cunningham v. Cornell, and other cases, and will also address how plan sponsors and fiduciaries can avoid or mitigate the risk of litigation in this changing legal environment.

Description

Financial services companies typically offer their products—mutual funds, insurance contracts, collective trusts, and delegated investment management services—to their employees and clients in company-sponsored 401(k) and retirement plans. These products and services can create additional risks for sponsors and fiduciaries and raise complicated issues under ERISA's prohibited transaction and fiduciary rules.

These complex issues have moved front and center in both the regulatory and litigation arenas as plaintiffs challenge the prudence and performance of these investments and associated fees and expenses. These challenges raise the specter of expensive litigation and potential liability affecting both financial services companies and their clients.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Anderson v. Intel Corp. where plaintiffs challenge the Ninth Circuit's ruling, arguing that the pleading rules conflict with ERISA's prudence standard when that court held that certain benchmarks must be met at the pleadingstage in ERISA cases.

Listen as our experienced panel of ERISA attorneys discusses the legal issues that can arise from offering proprietary or affiliated products in ERISA-covered retirement plans. The panel will discuss regulatory and litigation challenges in recent cases and explain how plan sponsors and fiduciaries can avoid or mitigate the additional risk these offerings create.

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