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On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hughes v. Northwestern University that the plaintiff-participants will get another opportunity to assert that the Northwestern retirement plan fiduciaries violated ERISA’s duty of prudence based on the following: the number of investment options included on the plan menu; the decision to contract with multiple recordkeepers…

In this seventh episode in a series of Ropes & Gray podcasts addressing emerging issues for fiduciaries of 401(k) and 403(b) plans to consider as part of their litigation risk management strategy, litigation & enforcement partner Dan Ward, ERISA and benefits partner Josh Lichtenstein, and benefits consultant Jack Eckart discuss some recent updates on the…

Litigation & enforcement partner Dan Ward, benefits partner Josh Lichtenstein, and benefits consulting principal David Kirchner co-hosted a webinar on May 25 focused on the recent wave of retirement plan litigation focused on not-for-profits and how to mitigate risk for employers and plan sponsors. Plaintiffs’ firms are aggressively targeting 403(b)/401(k) retirement plan sponsors in a…

This article was originally published by Law360 on Feb. 16, 2021.

The status of alternative investments as viable options on 401(k) plan menus received a significant boost on Jan. 21, as a California federal judge granted defendants’ motion to dismiss in the latest development in the closely watched Anderson v. Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee…

On June 1, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Thole v. U.S. Bank N.A. that participants of defined benefit plans lack standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution to sue fiduciaries for alleged failures to satisfy their duties under ERISA, if the participants cannot establish that they have experienced individual financial loss or…

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, litigation & enforcement partner Dan Ward, ERISA and benefits partner Josh Lichtenstein, and benefits principal David Kirchner discuss the recent $12 million settlement that has been agreed to in the Oracle 401(k) fee litigation, which includes some non-monetary requirements that could have a ripple effect on the routine…

In a recent Law360 article, members of the international arbitration group, Kat Gregor (also tax partner and tax controversy group co-founder) Nick Berg and Dan Ward (litigation and enforcement partners), discuss how investment agreements can be powerful tools for companies with foreign investments to recover or prevent loss in response to public health crises and…

On February 26, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in the closely watched Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee et al. v. Sulyma case, making it more difficult for employers to seek early dismissal of class actions brought by participants in their retirement plans by narrowing the circumstances where a shorter three-year statute

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