401(k) Participants May Gain Greater Rights To Sue
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law Offices:
401(k) participants may receive more power to sue their plans over investments that impose excessive fees because the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted an appeal tied to a wave of suits against employers.
The appeal, filed by Edison International workers, contends that participants should be able to sue plans for retaining imprudent investments.
The case comes to the Supreme Court amid intensified scrutiny of fees in retirement accounts, now the primary savings vehicle for old age. Since 2006, more than a dozen companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp. and ABB Ltd., have been sued.
The lawsuit focuses on six mutual funds added to the Edison plan in 1999. The workers say the plan improperly bought retail class shares, rather than identical institutional class shares that carried lower fees. Some of the fees on the retail shares then were returned to Edison’s service provider, ultimately reducing the company’s administrative costs by $8 million.
The attorneys of Eccleston Law Offices represent investors and advisers nationwide in securities and employment matters. Our attorneys draw on a combined experience of nearly 50 years in delivering the highest quality legal services.
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