A recent summary judgment decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in an ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) class action challenging the alleged impact of environmental, social,...more
7/11/2024
/ 401k ,
American Airlines ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Governance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Management ,
Proxy Voting ,
Retirement Plan
On December 1, 2022, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a district court’s certification of a nationwide class of 8,000+ retirement plans serving hundreds of thousands of participants in an ERISA action...more
12/8/2022
/ Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
ERISA Litigation ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Loans ,
Predominance Requirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
TIAA CREF ,
Vacated
Key Takeaway: The Sixth Circuit largely affirmed the grant of a motion to dismiss, but reversed the district court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claim that the defendants had failed to select the lowest-cost share class of...more
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
4/7/2022
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dismissal With Prejudice ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
ERISA Litigation ,
Excessive Fees ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Hughes v. Northwestern University ,
Investment Management ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers ,
Summary Judgment
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
12/17/2021
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
ERISA Litigation ,
Excessive Fees ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Management ,
Investment Products ,
Investors ,
Oral Argument ,
Pleading Standards ,
Retirement Plan
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
10/14/2021
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Administrative Expenses ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
ERISA Litigation ,
Fiduciary ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investors ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Plan Participants ,
Pleading Standards ,
Retirement Plan ,
Standing ,
Summary Judgment ,
Vacated
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
7/30/2021
/ 401k ,
Administrative Expenses ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Certiorari ,
Class Certification ,
Co-payments ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Excessive Fees ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Forum Selection ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
Investors ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Pensions ,
Pleading Standards ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Retirement Plan ,
Thole v U.S. Bank
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
4/8/2021
/ 401k ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Excessive Fees ,
Fiduciary ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
Investors ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday, February 4, affirmed the dismissal of an ERISA class-action lawsuit filed against General Electric Company and its former CEO. The complaint had alleged the...more
2/8/2021
/ 401k ,
Appeals ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Dismissals ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
ERISA Litigation ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Retirement Plan ,
Stock Options
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to hear Retirement Plans Committee of IBM v. Jander, a case about the legal standard for pleading a claim for breach of fiduciary duties under the Employee...more
Since 2002, federal courts have refused to find that implied private rights of action exist under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (ICA). Last week, however, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held...more
The delay came in response to the Presidential Memorandum issued on February 3, 2017, regarding the Fiduciary Rule. The Presidential Memorandum directed the DOL to conduct an updated impact assessment on whether the Rule “may...more
The DOL’s proposal comes in response to the Presidential Memorandum issued on February 3, 2017, regarding the Fiduciary Rule. The Presidential Memorandum directed the DOL to conduct an updated impact assessment on whether the...more
In a case closely watched by the mutual fund industry, the federal district court in New Jersey ruled on Thursday in favor of a mutual fund’s investment adviser and against the shareholders who had brought the lawsuit under...more
8/29/2016
/ Actual Damages ,
Board of Directors ,
Burden of Proof ,
Credibility ,
Excessive Fees ,
Expert Testimony ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Gartenberg Factors ,
Investment Adviser ,
Judicial Deference ,
Mutual Funds ,
Section 36(b)
The final rule, while expanding the types of retirement investment advice covered by fiduciary protections, especially for IRAs, also provides carveouts for retirement education, order-taking by brokers and sales pitches to...more
The plaintiffs, three plan participants, filed their lawsuit in 2012 and purported to assert claims on behalf of a class of all plans serviced by the defendants, affiliated entities that provided services to the plans and/or...more
10/2/2015
/ Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Excessive Fees ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
FRCP 23 ,
FRCP 23(b)(3) ,
Mutual Funds ,
Prohibited Transactions
Fiduciaries of two defined contribution retirement plans sponsored by the same employer (the “Plans”) sued the Plans’ former investment manager for breach of ERISA fiduciary duties and state law violations in connection with...more
In October 2012, a defined benefit plan sponsor amended its plan to provide that, effective Dec. 7, 2012, the plan would purchase an annuity to cover the plan’s obligations to make payments to the roughly 41,000 participants...more
9/30/2015
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
De-Risking ,
Defined Benefit Plans ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Pension Plan Amendments ,
Summary Plan Description ,
TRO
Factual Background -
As described in greater detail in the December 18, 2014 edition of the ELU, this case involves claims for breach of fiduciary duty when two 401(k) plans remained invested in the employer stock at a...more
In Teets v. Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, Case No. 14-2330 (D. Col. May 22, 2015), the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado denied in part and granted in part a motion to dismiss claims under ERISA...more
On June 25, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to grant certiorari in Tatum v. RJR Pension Investment Committee, 761 F.3d 346 (4th Cir. 2014). As discussed in the September 29, 2014 edition of the ELU, Tatum...more
In a highly anticipated decision concerning 401(k) excessive fee litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in Tibble v. Edison, Int’l, No. 13-550, vacating the lower court’s decision that had found...more
In Rochow v. Life Insurance Company of North America, No. 12-2074 (6th Cir. March 5, 2015), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled that an insurance company that wrongfully denied benefits to...more
The Second Circuit court of appeals held that a court can exercise its equitable powers to reform the terms of a cash balance retirement plan to provide greater benefits than stated in response to material misstatements made...more
In In re Fidelity ERISA Float Litigation, Case No. 13-10222 (D. Mass. Mar. 11, 2015), the district court rejected an ERISA challenge to a 401(k) plan service provider’s float practices. ...more