$6.9M Northern Trust ERISA Settlement Seeks Preliminary Approval from Court

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A $6.9 million settlement has been reached that, if approved by the court, will resolve a proposed class action lawsuit that claimed the Northern Trust Company breached its fiduciary duties by retaining an underperforming proprietary funds series as one of its employee retirement plan’s investment options.

Don’t miss the next class action settlement deadline. Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter.

The lawsuit against Northern Trust, originally filed in June 2021, contended that the company put its own interests above those of plan participants when it decided to retain its own target date funds suite for the retirement plan. According to the class action suit, the alleged mismanagement of investment options violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and cost the plan millions in damages.

The proposed class action settlement aims to cover a class of roughly 14,000 participants and beneficiaries of the Northern Trust Thrift-Incentive Plan who were invested in the funds series at issue—namely, the Northern Trust Focus Funds—at any time between June 1, 2015 and the date the deal receives preliminary approval from the court.

The plaintiffs notified the court of the agreement with Northern Trust, and filed an unopposed motion and memo detailing the terms of the proposed deal, on January 6, 2025. It is now up to the court to decide whether to grant initial approval to the Northern Trust settlement terms.

If the $6,900,000 deal is approved by the court, class members will not need to do anything to receive a Northern Trust settlement rebate, the agreement says.

ClassAction.org will update this page when the official Northern Trust settlement website goes live.

The document shares that Northern Trust payouts will be distributed to current and former participants on a pro rata basis, with individual payment amounts determined by a class member’s average qualifying account balance for the period from June 1, 2015 to September 22, 2021. Cash recovery amounts may be subject to decrease as necessary, the agreement adds.

Per the settlement agreement, payments to current participants will be made into their existing Northern Trust account in the plan. Former participants entitled to a settlement rebate can choose to receive their payout in the form of a check or as a rollover to a qualified retirement account, the document relays.

If the deal is approved, notice of the settlement will be issued to eligible class members within 40 days of the approval date, the agreement states.

Are you owed unclaimed settlement money? Check out our class action rebates page full of open class action settlements.