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Portal Conductor, Columnist: Nevin E. Adams, JD
Nevin is the former Chief Content Officer and Head of Retirement Research for the American Retirement Association. One of the retirement industry’s most prolific writers, these days he’s “retired,” which means he writes less, but continues to keep his eye on developments in, and threats to, the nation’s private retirement system.
In addition to helping guide the agenda development for the NAPA 401(k) Summit, he’s also the “Nevin” in the Nevin & Fred podcast (along with renowned ERISA attorney Fred Reish), offering irreverent, but relevant perspectives on the critical issues confronting plan sponsors, advisors, and retirement industry professionals.
Article Index
By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/9/2023
Resistance to retirement plan innovations (like automatic enrollment) have long been excused as being “too paternalistic” – but there might be a better standard.
We’ve all heard it – concerns that imposing certain default choices on participants (and sometimes plan sponsors) are, however well-...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/9/2023
An excessive fee suit where plan fiduciaries had prevailed on most issues – has now settled the remaining claims.
The suit – filed in mid-2020 by seven former employees of Schneider Electric Holdings, Inc. – had targeted Schneider Electric, the two committees that oversee the $4.5 billion plan,...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/5/2023
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek – and yet, just look at what happened to these guys and gals…
First, some odds and ends…
In Northampton, Massachusetts, city officials have given a $20,000 grant to the Northampton Vibrance Committee…to support the design and manufacture...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/2/2023
Last week the nation’s longest-running gauge of the nation’s retirement confidence painted a bleak, but understandable read on that measure.
Indeed, in the midst of a volatile (though recently recovering market) and (still) stubborn inflationary impacts[i] (not to mention the near certainty that,...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/25/2023
Another federal court has refused to accept the assumption that all recordkeeping services are “fungible” – and tossed an excessive fee suit – again, and this time with prejudice.
The plaintiffs here – Keith K. Kruchten, Angel D. Muratalla and William Begani – sued on behalf of the $2.1. billion...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/25/2023
I recently met some friends for lunch – but the only seats available were those high-back stools you basically have to climb up to in order to sit. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
As it turned out, my seat…wobbled. Which is to say that it basically rocked even as I sat there. Now, I’m all about...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/24/2023
The fiduciaries of the 99 Cents Only Stores have come to terms in an excessive fee suit involving their 401(k) plan – and for considerably more than…99 cents.
That said, the relatively quick (the suit was filed only about a year ago on March 25, 2022) settlement was, by the standards of such...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/21/2023
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek – and yet, just look at what happened to these guys and gals…
First, some odds and ends…
In the UK, Northern Railway has made an unusual, but perhaps not unexpected, request of commuters…
In Eugene, Oregon, there’s a lot of excitement...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/19/2023
Terms of a proprietary fund suit settlement with Mutual of America have been revealed.
The plaintiffs had claimed the plan fiduciaries had “an imprudent and disloyal preference for its own proprietary funds.” Represented in the action by Nichols Kaster PLLP, the participant/plaintiffs had claimed...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/18/2023
I recently stumbled across an academic study that claimed to find a correlation between higher employer contribution rates and leakage.
I will confess to a certain skepticism at that finding. There are, after all, a well-established series of things that contribute to leakage, broadly defined as...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/18/2023
“Following several years of thorough and active litigation…including numerous dispositive and procedural motions, full discovery, and preparation for a twelve-day jury trial originally scheduled for April 2023,” the parties in an excessive fee suit have come to terms.
Here participant-plaintiffs...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/14/2023
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek — and yet, just look at what (still) happened to these guys and gals…
First, some odds and ends…
In Augusta, Georgia…there are golf hazards…and then there’s the hazards at the recent Masters Tournament…and yes, we have video!
Near...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/12/2023
Another Midwestern federal court has found that the plaintiffs in a 401(k) excessive fee suit have failed to make their case.
This suit had been brought by participant-plaintiffs Ruth Williams, Tovah Allen, Carolyn Ross, Alicia Bates, and Tracy Young against Centene Corporation, the Board of...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/11/2023
I’ve been honored with a lot of praise and congratulations over the past couple of months about my “retirement” (and not a little skepticism about my understanding of the term) — but in quiet moments, there’s been one question that keeps coming up.
That question — and it generally arises once...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/10/2023
The plaintiffs had claimed the plan fiduciaries had “an imprudent and disloyal preference for its own proprietary funds” — but have now come to terms.
Back in September of 2022, participant-plaintiffs Eric Goldstein, Matt Sudol, and Bonnie Zelazek, individually and as representatives of a class of...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/10/2023
According to a new report, the youngest workforce generation — Gen Z — is off to a great start.
The report — Generational changes in 401(k) behaviors[i] — finds that while all generations saw rising participation rates, because young participants typically have the lowest participation rates,...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/10/2023
Plaintiffs in two of the recently dismissed suits involving the BlackRock LifePath target-date funds have announced their intentions to appeal those losses.
The plaintiffs here are those related to the Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Employees’ Capital Accumulation Plan (Tullgren v. Booz Allen Hamilton...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/7/2023
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek — a very special one with the NAPA 401(k) Summit… and yet, just look at what (still) happened to these guys and gals…
First, some odds and ends…
Now HERE’S the kind of hard-hitting journalistic coverage you just don’t see any more…
From...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/7/2023
Those of you who hung around for the last session at the 2023 NAPA 401(k) Summit got a special treat — our own advisor version of Family Feud…
Our version includes Team Wirehouse/Independents in a rematch against Team Aggregators to see who could best match the responses provided by plan sponsor...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/6/2023
An excessive fee suit with a “complicated procedural history” and one that a federal judge says “appears to be a lawsuit in search of a theory” has, once again, culminated in a win for the plan fiduciaries.
This time we’re talking about the suit alleging that the Georgetown University 403(b) plan...
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