Retirement & Benefits

The ongoing battle over the use of ESG factors when making investment decisions for retirement plans continues.

Last week, 26,000 bank employees and retirees reached a settlement with Pentegra over prohibited transactions in their class-action lawsuit, just nine days after a rare jury trial awarded them $38,760,232 over excessive fees.

Former employees sued the grocery chain for allegedly failing to rein in recordkeeping costs from Fidelity, even though services were “routine.”

The aerospace firm violated its fiduciary duties by using an in-house service provider and affiliated target-date funds, according to the class-action lawsuit filed by plan participants.

Following a lawsuit alleging “wrongful use” of 401(k) forfeited funds, the banking giant is now being sued by employees over $2.4 million in plan assets that were invested in an in-house stable-value fund.

A Texas judge has ruled that retirement fund managers may consider environmental, social, and corporate governance factors when choosing investment funds.

This emerging trend demonstrates forfeiture cases are no longer nuisance lawsuits. Top law firm Schlichter Bogard, which has been representing many plaintiffs in recent 401(k) excessive fee lawsuits, is representing the telecommunications company’s plaintiffs.

The lawsuit, like many 401(k) lawsuits filed by employees over the past year, challenged HP’s decision to use “forfeitures” to reduce employer contributions rather than to pay administrative costs.