401(k) Lawsuit Investigation: Was Your Plan Mismanaged?
Last Updated on June 3, 2024
At A Glance
- This Alert Affects:
- Certain current and former employees of the companies listed below who participated in their employer’s 401(k) plan.
- What's Going On?
- Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are looking into whether certain companies violated a federal law by mismanaging their 401(k) plans, potentially causing some employees to lose millions in retirement savings. If so, it’s possible that class action lawsuits can be filed.
- How Could a Lawsuit Help?
- A class action lawsuit could help plan participants get back money for any financial losses and denied benefits—and potentially force their employer to ensure that its 401(k) plan is managed in accordance with federal law.
- What You Can Do
- If you are a current or former employee of one of the companies mentioned below and participated in its 401(k) plan, fill out the form on this page to learn how you may be able to help the investigation.
Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are looking into whether certain companies violated a federal law called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by improperly managing their 401(k) plans.
Under ERISA, plan sponsors and administrators are required to act in the best interests of participants and their beneficiaries and must ensure that the plan’s investment options are prudent and its expenses reasonable. The attorneys believe, however, that some companies may have lost their employees millions in retirement savings by, for instance, choosing imprudent investment options and allowing their 401(k) plans to be charged excessive fees.
As part of their investigation, the attorneys want to hear from current and former employees of the following companies who participated in the corresponding 401(k) plans:
- Virtua Health – Virtua Health 401(k) Savings Plan
- Atrius Health – Atrius Health 401K Retirement Savings Plan
- WakeMed – WakeMed RSP
To get in touch, fill out the form on this page. You may be able to help start a class action lawsuit on behalf of yourself and other plan participants.
How Might My 401(k) Plan Have Been Mismanaged?
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) protects covered workers’ retirement plan assets by placing certain responsibilities on any people or entities that have control over the plan’s administration, management or assets. These people/entities, known as plan fiduciaries, may include the plan’s sponsor (such as an employer), trustees, investment managers and plan administrator. Fiduciaries are legally obligated to act solely in the interest of plan participants and their beneficiaries and with the “care, skill, prudence and diligence” of a “prudent man” in their position.
According to the Department of Labor, retirement plan sponsors and other fiduciaries are obligated to:
- Select prudent investment options
- Diversify a plan’s investments to minimize risk of large losses
- Follow plan documents
- Ensure that plan expenses and fees are reasonable
- Avoid conflicts of interest
- Monitor the performance of investment options
Under ERISA, a fiduciary that does not properly carry out its obligations may be personally liable for losses that occur as a result. Indeed, many employers and other retirement plan fiduciaries have been hit with class action lawsuits over alleged ERISA violations.
According to some of these cases, an employer could potentially violate ERISA by:
- selecting poorly performing investment options when better-performing and similar options were available
- selecting more expensive investment options when cheaper, identical options were available
- failing to monitor investment options and remove under-performing options
- allowing the plan to be charged excessive recordkeeping and administrative fees
The lawsuits claimed that plan participants and their beneficiaries lost millions in retirement funds due to the underperformance of certain investment options and the excessive fees that could have instead been invested under the plan.
How Would I Know That My 401(k) Is Being Mismanaged?
Unfortunately, most 401(k) plan participants won’t be able to tell whether their plan’s investment choices are imprudent or the fees they’re being charged are excessive. That’s why the attorneys working with ClassAction.org are offering employees a chance to go over their 401(k) statements together.
If you are a current or former employee of Virtua Health, Atrius Health or WakeMed and participated in your employer’s retirement plan, get in touch by filling out the form on this page.
An attorney or legal representative may then reach out to you directly to ask you some questions and explain how you may be able to help get a class action lawsuit started. It doesn’t cost anything to fill out the form or speak with someone, and you’re not obligated to take legal action.
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