18 pages. "The complaint alleges a purchase of employer stock by the Plan and a loan by the employer to the Plan, both of which are indisputably prohibited transactions ... GreatBanc [as Plan Trustee] can prevail only if it can take advantage of one of [ERISA] section 408's exemptions. It never raised any such affirmative defense, however; it took the position instead that the plaintiffs have the burden of pleading facts that would negate the applicability of section 408's exemptions and that they failed to do so.... [This Court finds that] section 408 exemptions are affirmative defenses for pleading purposes, and so the plaintiff has no duty to negate any or all of them." [Allen v. GreatBanc Trust Co., No. 15-3569 (7th Cir. Aug. 25, 2016)]

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