Financial Legal News Articles & Interviews

Washington, DC On January 14, the Supreme Court sent Retirement Plans Committee of IBM v. Jander, a much-watched ERISA lawsuit, back to the Second Circuit for further consideration of defensive arguments raised by the plan administrators. The decision is a setback, although perhaps not a fatal one, for participants in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) who claim that they have been injured because of corporate financial fraud. These “stock drop” lawsuits are one of several different kinds of 401k fiduciary mismanagement lawsuits.

Washington, DC On January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Thole v. U.S. Bank, NA, an ERISA lawsuit (ERISA) that has major implications for the rights of participants and beneficiaries to sue plan sponsors under the basic legal framework of ERISA. The defendant plan sponsor will argue that the plaintiff retirees have no standing to sue over alleged breaches of fiduciary duty because they have not suffered any individual financial loss. The defendant plan sponsor will ask the Court to affirm an Eighth Circuit decision that limits participants’ rights to oversee investment management decisions.

Oakland, CA 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.

New York, NY 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.

Philadelphia, PA  “Gouging” is often implied, but rarely actually said excessive overdraft fee lawsuits. But there it is, in the class action lawsuit’s description of Philadelphia Federal Credit Union’s practice of charging multiple $28 insufficient fee charges for the same transaction and PFCU’s legal duty not to “[exercise] its discretion to enrich itself and gouge its customers.” It’s hot language, but a simple story.

San Francisco, CA In August, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Charles Schwab Corp. could force plan participants to individually arbitrate their claims that fiduciaries of the Schwab Retirement Savings and Investment Plan (Plan) had mismanaged plan assets. The ERISA lawsuit decision sent shock waves through the Ninth Circuit as it appears to reverse nearly 35 years of judicial precedent about forced arbitration of ERISA claims.

Reno, NV On July 23, 2015, Tonya Gunter had enough money in her checking account to cover her transactions. Nonetheless, United Federal Credit Union (UFCU) charged her eight $30 overdraft fees because her “available balance,” a different and arguably artificially defined number, was too low. Gunter sued. United Federal Credit Union has now agreed to settle Gunter’s class action excessive overdraft fee lawsuit for $1.75 million.

San Francisco, CA Safeway and Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting Inc. have agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a proposed class action ERISA lawsuit brought by participants in the Safeway 401k Plan. The workers claim that Safeway and Aon breached their fiduciary obligations by offering high cost investment options that benefitted the investment manager at the expense of participants.

San Francisco, CA Elizabeth Eiess overdrew her USAA bank account when she tried to pay her Citibank credit card bill of $358.85.The payment was returned, and USAA bank assessed an overdraft charge of $29.00. USAA then charged her twice more – every time Citibank submitted the payment – ultimately for a total of $87.00. In her class action excessive overdraft fee lawsuit Eiess claims that this was a violation of her deposit agreement and that it was part of a widespread pattern of abusive conduct toward depositors.

Santa Ana, CA Aaron Kushner and Eric Spitz, who mismanaged the investments of the Retirement Plan of Freedom Communications, Inc. (the Pension Plan) have offered to settle an ERISA lawsuit brought by the federal Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) for $7.8 million.