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Stifel Faces Proposed ERISA Class Action Over 401(k) Fund Performance

Posted on March 19th, 2026 at 10:28 AM
Stifel Faces Proposed ERISA Class Action Over 401(k) Fund Performance

From the desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law

According to ThinkAdvisor, Stifel Financial now faces a proposed class action lawsuit that accuses the firm of mismanaging its profit sharing 401(k) retirement plan in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Missouri's Eastern District, the plaintiffs allege that Stifel failed to remove two persistently underperforming investment options from the plan. ThinkAdvisor reports that the funds at issue include the American Century Large Cap Growth Fund and the Artisan Mid Cap Growth Pooled Account.

According to ThinkAdvisor, the lawsuit alleges that the American Century fund lagged its benchmark and peer funds over the past six years. Since its inception in 2001, the fund allegedly underperformed the Russell 1000 Growth Index by approximately 1.41 percent per year. The complaint also claims that the Artisan fund underperformed its benchmark and comparable funds after its addition to the plan in 2014 and has trailed the Russell Mid Cap Growth Index by roughly 1.5 percent annually over nearly 26 years.

Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, transition, regulatory, and disciplinary matters.

Tags: eccleston, eccleston law, erisa class action, 401(k) mismanagement, stifel financial, fiduciary breach, retirement plan litigation

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