The DOL alleges that the company’s president influenced an appraiser’s valuation and the ESOP’s trustee didn’t do his due diligence before the stock purchase.
The judge rejected the defendants’ argument that the complaint cannot be based solely on the funds’ underperformance but must contain more specific allegations.
Motives behind keeping higher cost, underperforming funds in plan alleged in the lawsuit include providing seed money for Wells Fargo to launch new fund products.
The lawsuit was previously dismissed because the alleged breach of fiduciary duty involved the amendment of plan benefits, which is a settlor, not a fiduciary, function; a judge...
DC plan sponsors have several items in their toolbox to help participants create a diversified portfolio that includes exposure to equities in line with their risk tolerance.
Now that plan documents will be cleaned up, 403(b) plan sponsors can focus on strategic tasks such as plan design changes and on complying with new legislation.
The action, in part, addresses the concern plan sponsors had about the ability to understand—and to communicate to participants—these complex products.
Case documents show Salesforce has actually changed some of the practices that are criticized in the complaint, but the plaintiffs argue that these changes were made too late.
Among other things, items on the cumulative list include changes related to the Supreme Court DOMA ruling, hardship withdrawal changes and regulations for statutory hybrid plans.