A Closer Look at Arbitration Provisions in ERISA Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims

BRIAN D. MURRAY and ANGEL L. GARRETT, December 19 2023 As plan sponsors increasingly look to arbitration provisions to avoid costly class action litigation, courts across the nation have weighed in on whether plan-wide claims for breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA § 502(a)(2) can be subject to mandatory arbitration.  ERISA § 502(a)(2) provides that […]

Ninth Circuit Decision in AT&T Case Could Open Up Potential New Attacks on Retirement Plan Fiduciaries: What Fiduciaries Need to Know

DYLAN D. RUDOLPH and JOSEPH C. FAUCHER,  August 10, 2023 On August 4, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived a lawsuit against AT&T Services Inc. and its retirement plan fiduciaries (together, “AT&T”), reversing a district court’s order granting summary judgment in AT&T’s favor. This decision, which is published and binding on cases located […]

The Unlikely Intersection Between ERISA and State Laws Regulating Abortion

JOSEPH C. FAUCHER and BRIAN D. MURRAY, November 10, 2022 In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., which overturned Roe v. Wade and its progeny, many states have passed, or are in the process of passing, laws that severely restrict abortion services. Assuming no federal legislation […]

Rash of Recent Lawsuits Focus on BlackRock Indexed Target Date Options: Even Low-Cost Funds Are Being Attacked

DYLAN RUDOLPH and JOSEPH FAUCHER, September 29, 2022  Over the past several weeks, a single law firm, Miller Shah, LLP, has filed nearly a dozen lawsuits against fiduciaries of defined contribution plans that offer the BlackRock LifePath Index target date funds (“BlackRock Funds”). The cases represent a shift in approach relative to earlier waves of […]

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Revives Two 401(k) Fee Cases, Potentially Making It More Difficult for Plan Fiduciaries to Obtain Early Dismissal

 DYLAN RUDOLPH and CLARISSA KANG, April 21, 2022  In a rather surprising move, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued two short decisions within the span of a week, which reversed lower court dismissals in 401(k) fee cases brought against Salesforce.com, Inc. and Trader Joe’s Company. A motion to dismiss challenges the quality of a […]

Long-Anticipated Supreme Court Decision on Excessive Fee Pleadings Standards Sends Case Back to the Seventh Circuit — Hughes v. Northwestern University

ANGEL L. GARRETT and CATHERINE L. REAGAN, February 4, 2022  With 401(k) plan excessive fee litigation sweeping the nation, the wait is finally over: The Supreme Court has issued a decision which plan fiduciaries anticipated might revolutionize excessive fee case pleading standards — Hughes v. Northwestern University.1 On January 24, 2022, the Supreme Court held […]

Mitigating Fiduciary Risk: Lessons Learned About the Prudent Person Rule After Fifteen Years of Fee Litigation

DYLAN D. RUDOLPH and ROBERT R. GOWER, July, 2021  The uptick in lawsuits now commonly referred to as “excessive fee” fiduciary breach litigation began on September 11, 2006, when a St. Louis firm, Schlichter Bogard & Denton, filed its initial tranche of lawsuits against the fiduciaries of multiple large corporate 401(k) plans. In the fifteen […]

Ninth Circuit Approves ERISA Forum Selection Clauses

NICOLAS  DEGUINES and R. BRADFORD HUSS, June, 2021  The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in the recent case of In re Becker, No. 20-72805, 2021 WL 1219745 (9th Cir. Apr. 1, 2021), upheld the use of forum selection clauses in Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) governed plans as […]

Participant Data: Plan Asset or Fair Game for Recordkeepers to Use to Market Non-Plan Products?

CATHERINE REAGAN and R. BRADFORD HUSS, April 29, 2021   In an emerging theory of liability, plan fiduciaries’ treatment of participants’ personal data is coming under scrutiny. Over the last five years, we have seen how the collection of many individuals’ personal data can become a valuable asset in the right hands — whether it’s used […]

Supreme Court to Decide on ERISA Preemption of State Law Regulating Prescription Drug Pricing

CLARISSA A. KANG, November 24, 2020  One of the cases heard by eight justices of the Supreme Court (after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and before Justice Amy Coney Barrett was appointed and sworn in), Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association involves the question of whether ERISA preempts or supersedes an Arkansas state law governing […]

The Importance of Including Exhaustion Requirements in Plan Documents: Taking a Closer Look at the Sixth Circuit’s Decision in Wallace v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc.

 ANGEL L. GARRETT, August 27, 2020  A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reminds plan fiduciaries once again of the importance of including claims and appeals procedures and administrative exhaustion language in their plans. See Wallace v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., 954 F.3d 879 (6th Cir. 2020). Often, plan fiduciaries […]

The Supreme Court Limits Standing to Sue in Cases Involving Defined Benefit Plans

JOSEPH C. FAUCHER and BRIAN D. MURRAY, June 8, 2020   On June 1, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Thole v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 2020 WL 2814294 (2020). The majority opinion — written by Justice Kavanaugh — is likely to have a significant impact on ERISA litigation involving defined benefit plans. While […]

The Latest in Stable Value Fund Litigation

JOSEPH C. FAUCHER and BRIAN D. MURRAY, February, 2020    401(k) plan sponsors routinely offer stable value funds as conservative investment alternatives for their participants. Insurance companies that manage stable value funds invest in fixed income instruments, such as short- and intermediate-term government and corporate bonds and mortgage-backed securities. The funds are insured, so investors […]

Supreme Court Gives Plaintiffs Cover to Beat ERISA’s 3-Year Statute of Limitations

CLARISSA A. KANG and DYLAN D. RUDOLPH, February, 2020    On February 26, 2020, the Supreme Court settled a split among federal circuit courts of appeal regarding what it means to have actual knowledge of an alleged breach of fiduciary duty sufficient to begin the running of a three-year period to file suit on the […]

Supreme Court Remands Outlier Stock Drop Decision

JOSEPH C. FAUCHER and DYLAN D. RUDOLPH, January 27, 2020    For many years, courts have wrestled with the standards that apply to a fiduciary’s decision to offer stock of the sponsor company as an investment option in the company’s 401(k) plan. The struggle arose from two arguably contradictory provisions in ERISA. One provision encouraged […]

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