JD
By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/20/2022
After nearly a year of negotiations (though that’s a pretty short turnaound by some measures), the parties in an excessive fee suit have asked for the court’s approval on a settlement agreement struck by the parties.
The plan in question—more specifically the plan fiduciaries—involved are those of...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/20/2022
Noting that “precedent has overtaken some of the debates in the case,” a federal appellate court has weighed in on an excessive fee case—affirming the rejection of most, but not all, of the plaintiffs’ claims.
The Case
The defendants in this case are the fiduciaries of Cincinnati-based...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/14/2022
A federal appellate court has backed the dismissal of an excessive fee suit, rejecting the notion that offering actively managed funds—even those with disappointing performance—by itself doesn’t support allegations of a fiduciary breach.
Interestingly enough, it’s the first such appellate court...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/12/2022
The fiduciaries of yet another university 403(b) plan have been targeted with litigation—and while the allegations are familiar, the plaintiff’s attorney is new.
The suit—filed against both the fiduciaries (and those that appointed them) of the $1.9 billion Northeastern[1] University 403(b) plan...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/7/2022
The Labor Department is pushing back against litigation challenging specific elements of its FAQs regarding the fiduciary rule.
The suit (Am. Sec. Ass’n v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, M.D. Fla., No. 8:22-cv-00330, complaint filed 2/9/22) was one of two filed earlier this year challenging the DOL’s...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/6/2022
There’s a battle brewing in Battle Creek about excessive recordkeeping and managed account fees.
Bradley H. Fleming, a former accountant at Kellogg’s, has sued his former employer, the Kellogg Co., its board of directors, its ERIA finance committee and its ERISA administrative committee claiming...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/1/2022
It’s been said that there remains more that unites us than divides us—but that’s not how it feels most days.
However, such times are not all that unusual for this diverse nation. Indeed, if today’s battle lines do seem harsher and more extreme, my sense is that it’s only because they are...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/30/2022
A federal judge has ruled that the comparisons put forth as proof of a fiduciary breach were not “meaningful.”
The suit was filed late last year by plaintiff-participants Malika Riley and Takeeya S. Reliford, by and through their attorneys—Carey & Danis, Edelson Lechtzin LLP, and, Capozzi...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/28/2022
A multibillion-dollar 403(b) plan has been sued for the second time in a year.
Now, MITRE had been sued in 2021—in a case just dismissed a few weeks back—because the named plaintiff, one Aaron Brown, was found to have invested his plan account in a single fund that belonged to the lowest-cost...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/22/2022
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate June 15 seeks to stem retirement plan leakage, backing auto-portability and a tax credit for adopting employers.
The Advancing Auto Portability Act of 2022, introduced by Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has the potential to...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/20/2022
This weekend was, of course, Father’s Day—but my dad’s decision to retire was driven more by time than timing.
Like many of his generation, once he got to 65, it was time to “retire.” He didn’t have a pension (fortunately for him, my mother did), though he had Social Security, and savings in a...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/13/2022
Last week the Treasury Department’s Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report in a classic case of good news, bad news.
The good news, of a sort, was that the date through which Social Security will be able to pay scheduled benefits was projected to be 2034—and while that’s not...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/22/2022
The graduates of 2022—well, they’ve been through a lot, arguably more than most—but with any luck at all, the days and years ahead will be brighter.
Life has many lessons to teach us, some more painful than others—and some we’d just as soon be spared. Regardless, if you have a graduate—or if you...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/19/2022
The law firm of Schlichter Bogard & Denton has a new target in an excessive fee suit—the plan’s investment advisor.
More specifically, plaintiffs Michelle Mills, Coy Sarell, Chad Westover, Brent Aleshire, Barbara Kershner, Paula Schaub, and Jennifer Silva—who just two months ago filed suit[1] ...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/17/2022
Springfield, Missouri-based O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. is the latest to draw the attention of the plaintiffs’ bar—or more precisely its $1.1 billion plan and 53,000 participants.
These plaintiffs—represented by Capozzi Adler PC (and FortmanSpann LLC) say that the defendants’ “mismanagement of the...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/13/2022
A consulting firm’s data breach has triggered a second class action lawsuit by an affected participant on behalf of a class of some 2,500,000 individuals.
The suit, brought by plaintiff Greg Torrano, claims that 2,537,261 individuals signed up for benefits plans through their employers—only to...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/8/2022
As kids, we often struggle with our parents’ attempts to help us make good choices—and, at least in my family, Mom caught the brunt of all that (at least from me).
We were probably like most families at the time in that we never really talked about money or finance. Doubtless that was in no small...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/29/2022
A settlement term—and plaintiffs’ attorney fees—in a proprietary fund suit may be undermined by the Labor Department’s recent comments on cryptocurrency—more specifically, concerns about what those comments mean for the role of self-directed brokerage accounts.
In January, T. Rowe Price settled a...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/29/2022
The Department of Labor isn’t backing down on its cryptocurrency concerns—but a written response to U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) includes some comments with regard to its application to self-directed brokerage windows.
The DOL’s April 20 response to Tuberville’s letter to Labor Secretary...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/19/2022
After “nearly five years of intensive litigation,” a little over a month ago, a university 403(b) excessive fee suit settled—and now we know the terms.
The suit was originally filed in June 2017 by Latasha Davis and Jennifer Elliott on behalf of Washington University’s plan of more than 24,000...
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