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Employee Stock Options Lawsuit

Employee benefits are an important form of compensation offered by many employers. Some benefits plans are covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). When employers violate ERISA laws, employees may be able to file a lawsuit to recover money lost from their employee savings plan, employee stock options plan or other benefits plans covered by ERISA.

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ERISA Laws

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for pension and health plans offered by private businesses to their employees. ERISA was designed to protect employees who participate in such plans.

employee stock lossesERISA covers health plans, retirement plans and employee stock options plans, in which employees are given the opportunity to purchase shares of a company's stock at a certain price, often lower than the actual or anticipated market price of the shares.

Under ERISA laws, the people responsible for overseeing employee benefits plans (often referred to as fiduciaries) must follow specific guidelines. These include acting in the best interests of the plan participants; providing participants with plan information, including information about plan features and funding; and providing a grievance and appeals process for participants. Breaches of fiduciary duty can result in a lawsuit being filed against plan fiduciaries.

Plan fiduciaries include plan trustees, plan administrators and people who sit on the plan's investment committee. Fiduciaries are required to act prudently, diversify investments and avoid conflicts of interest when managing a plan's assets.

ERISA Violations

Employee stock option litigation often involves a breach or misrepresentation of Stock Option Agreements; some scenarios include:
  • A group of employees' invested employee stock options are wrongfully canceled (i.e., their Stock Option Agreements are breached) when their subsidiary or division is sold by the parent corporation that granted them their options even though the employees continue to work for the same company and in the same jobs after the acquisition;


  • An employee is denied the rights granted to him by a Stock Option Agreement to accelerated vesting of unvested options following a change in control (merger or sale), despite the fact that his income and/or job duties are dramatically reduced after the merger or sale;



  • ERISA Violation
  • An employee or group of employees is terminated (or their division is sold) specifically to prevent the vesting of unvested employee stock options, which, at least in California, could be a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing;


  • A company engages in fraud by lying to its employees about the number of options they will be given, their exercise prices, their vesting schedules and/or their entitlement or lack of entitlement to employee stock options; and


  • A fiduciary makes decisions about the plan based on what is best for the company but not what is best for plan participants. 


ERISA Lawsuit

ERISA Lawsuit Yellow FreightAn ERISA lawsuit was filed against YRC Worldwide Inc., also known as Yellow Freight, alleging employees lost value in their plans because of imprudent investments by plan administrators.

Employee stock option lawyers have experience handling all types of employee stock option cases, and exclusively represent employees and focus their practice on employee stock option disputes, employee stock option cases, employee stock option litigation, employee stock option class actions, deceptive trade practices, and breach of Stock Option Agreements in connection with employee stock options.

Employee Stock Options Legal Help

If you have suffered stock losses from the cancellation or devaluation of employee stock options, please click the link below to submit your complaint to a lawyer who will review your claim for free.


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EMPLOYEE STOCK OPTION LEGAL ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

Dignity Health ERISA Lawsuit Inches Toward $100 Million Settlement
Dignity Health ERISA Lawsuit Inches Toward $100 Million Settlement
December 10, 2019
The Dignity Health ERISA lawsuit has been exhaustively litigated since 2013, but now appears close to settlement. The proposed settlement in Rollins v. Dignity Health, which still requires final approval by the Northern District of California, would require Dignity Health to add $50 million in retirement plan funding in 2020 and at least $50 million in 2021. In addition, Dignity Health must not reduce participants’ accrued benefits because of a plan merger or amendment for 10 years. Dignity Health has also promised to fund the plan until 2024, making the minimum contribution recommended by actuaries to the plan. READ MORE

Goldman Sachs 401k Plan Participants file ERISA Lawsuit over Self-Dealing
Goldman Sachs 401k Plan Participants file ERISA Lawsuit over Self-Dealing
November 21, 2019
A class action ERISA lawsuit filed on October 25 in the Southern District of New York claims that Goldman Sachs Inc. and related defendants failed to administer the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. 401k plan prudently and in the best interest of participants. Instead, Falberg v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alleges that Goldman managed the plan to benefit the company at the expense of participants. Plan fiduciaries did this by keeping many underperforming proprietary mutual funds in the investment lineup. READ MORE

Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma to shape ERISA fiduciary lawsuits
Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma to shape ERISA fiduciary lawsuits
November 7, 2019
On December 4, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in an ERISA lawsuit that may have lasting implications for the ability of plan participants to sue over mismanagement of retirement funds. As Christopher Sulyma argues in his Supreme Court brief, ERISA plan participants should not be assumed to know about (and perhaps have consented to) suspect  financial decisions disclosed in a “Russian nesting doll” style series of linked online documents. READ MORE

EMPLOYEE STOCK OPTION SETTLEMENTS

  • US Auto Meeting Notification Regarding $10 Million Class Action Settlement.
  • UnitedHealth Group Pays $895 Million in CalPers Class Action
MORE SETTLEMENTS PUBLISH YOUR SETTLEMENTS

READER COMMENTS

Posted by

on
My retirement plan made an erroneous mistake in distribution of my benefits. The company reported it months later and now l am having to pay back retirement money and recI've no benefits for 2 years. I know have to go back to work.

Posted by

on
My ESOP has declined from $8K to less than $1K , also while being employed with Fannie Mae I was unable to sell any of my personal stock due to a trading freeze designated by Fannie Mae. I am currently on disability leave without pay from my 10+ years as an eviction specialist for their national foreclosed REO properties.

Posted by

on
My 401 K is losing money daily, my former company keeps lying to me stating they are doing what I ask when I'm on the phone with them. Example. I sent an email (which I still have) to my former Benefits coordinator on December 5, 2007, and she said she would complete her part that day and forward it onto the corporate benefits department. the following week when I spoke with the Corporate Benefit department December 10, 2007, they had still not received my termination from Wichita. I received a call December 11, 2007 from the Corporate deparment and they stated that the local benefit coordinator was completing her part and I should be able to terminate my account with vanguard by December 14, 2007. I called Vanguard today, and they still do not have the information of my termination so I can not terminate my account. I am needing this money to purchase gifts for my children for Christmas, and to keep power on. Nobody seems to understand I am needing this money now, I keep losing money daily because the stock market is so bad. Ther has to be a law against somebody not letting you terminate your 401K account especially when you kep losing money.

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