Complaint Alleges Cushman & Wakefield Failed to Protect Workers’ 401(k) From Climate Risks

A former employee of commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield U.S. Inc. has filed a complaint accusing the company of breaching its fiduciary duties to retirement plan participants by failing to protect workers’ retirement savings from climate-related financial risks, while at the same time evaluating and managing climate risks as financial risks to its business.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleges the company violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by allowing its 401(k) plan to retain an underperforming investment fund that did not analyze climate risk, despite mounting evidence that climate change poses significant financial threats to investors.

The case tests whether retirement plan fiduciaries must consider climate-related financial risks when managing employee savings, even as President Donald Trump continues to undo ESG-related policies.

The Department of Labor, for one, is working to replace the ESG rule used under former President Joe Biden, which encouraged fiduciaries to use ESG considerations as a “tiebreaker” when evaluating investments that had similar returns. The new rule, if it mirrors the one in place during Trump’s first term, would return to a standard that fiduciaries need to consider only “pecuniary factors” when making investment decisions. Under that rule, climate-related financial risks—such as the one raised in the complaint against Cushman & Wakefield—should not factor in investment decisions.

Further, Vanguard recently settled for nearly $30 million in an case brought by 11 Republican state attorneys general that accused the asset manager and two other firms of manipulating the stock of coal companies . The settlement included Vanguard agreeing to cast shareholder votes “solely to further the financial interests of investors in those funds” and to “not advocate to any portfolio company that it take any particular course of conduct to reduce carbon emissions.”

The Latest Complaint

The complaint, Kvek v. Cushman & Wakefield U.S. Inc., was brought by former employee Renee Kvek on behalf of herself and other participants in the company’s retirement plan. Kvek alleges that the company and its investment committee failed to properly monitor the plan’s investment options and retained in its lineup the Westwood Quality SmallCap Fund, which the complaint describes as both chronically underperforming and unusually exposed to climate-related financial risks.

According to the complaint, the fund lagged its benchmark by 17 percentage points in 2025, while charging higher fees than comparable investment options. The filing also claims the fund’s managers have explicitly stated they do not model or manage climate-related financial risks in their portfolio strategy.

The complaint argues that leaving the fund in the retirement plan exposed employees’ savings to excessive risk while providing inferior performance.

“Where serious financial risks are allowed to aggregate, losses can materialize rapidly and in devastating fashion,” the complaint states, comparing climate-related financial risk to systemic threats that can destabilize diversified portfolios if not properly managed.

The lawsuit further alleges that Cushman & Wakefield—a global real estate services company with about 53,000 employees and operations in nearly 60 countries—was well aware of the financial risks posed by climate change in its own business operations, but failed to apply similar scrutiny to its employee retirement plan.

Company filings and public statements cited in the complaint show that Cushman has publicly warned that “climate risk is financial risk” and has developed sophisticated tools and advisory services to help clients assess and manage climate-related risks in real estate portfolios.

That contrast—between the company’s internal climate risk management and its oversight of employee retirement investments—forms a central argument in the case.

“When your employer offers you a set of retirement options, you assume they’ve done the work to make sure those options are sound,” Kvek, the lead plaintiff, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “I was disappointed to learn how exposed my savings were to climate-related financial risks.”

The complaint also alleges potential conflicts of interest involving financial services company Fidelity, which served as trustee, recordkeeper and investment adviser for the plan. The complaint claims Fidelity stood to benefit financially from the plan’s investment in the Westwood fund and that plan fiduciaries failed to properly account for that conflict.

The complaint seeks to recover losses to the retirement plan and require changes to how the investment options are managed. Attorneys involved in the case say it represents a broader shift in how climate change is being framed in financial litigation.

“Climate risk is actually a severe economic risk,” said Kimberly Blake, an attorney with environmental law group ClientEarth USA, which represents the plaintiff alongside the law firm Cohen Milstein, in a statement. “You cannot claim to be a prudent fiduciary while ignoring the biggest systemic threat to the global economy.”

The complaint argues that climate-related threats—including extreme weather events, regulatory changes and technological shifts in energy markets—can affect companies across industries and create correlated risks within investment portfolios. Because retirement accounts typically have long investment horizons, the filing contends that fiduciaries must evaluate those risks as part of their duty to safeguard workers’ savings. 

“This claim is a variation on widely asserted legal theories that have been prevalent for many years,” said a Cushman & Wakefield spokesperson. “We have thoughtful processes in place that are designed to give our plan participants a variety of prudent investment options. Once served, we will appropriately defend this case.”

The Cushman & Wakefield 401(k) Plan had approximately 29,000 participants with $1.7 billion in assets at the end of 2024, according to its most recent Form 5500 filing.