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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 10/6/2023
For the second time in a month, a law firm has brought suit challenging the use of forfeitures in a 401(k) plan.
The lawyers are from Hayes Pawlenko LLP, a South Pasadena, CA-based duo (who met in law school, according to their website) positioning themselves as an employment litigation firm “...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 10/3/2023
There’s an oft-repeated line from that 1967 classic movie “Cool Hand Luke” about a “failure to communicate.”
Now, most of us aren’t trying to convey the consequences of violating prison rules, but there are messages where mere words sometimes fall short of their purpose. There are literal...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 10/3/2023
Another in the series of suits alleging that plan fiduciaries “chased low fees” and ignored investment performance has been dismissed—though there was a unique twist here.
Like most of the roughly dozen suits that were filed a little more than a year ago, this one[i] “targets” the Marsh &...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 10/2/2023
Noting that "the settling parties agreed to the proposed settlement only after vigorous arm's-length negotiations between counsel experienced in ERISA class actions and under the auspices of … a third-party private mediator with extensive experience mediating ERISA actions”—the parties in yet...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/29/2023
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek …and, as it turns out, another month. And yet, there’s no shortage of…well, just look at what happened to these guys and gals…
First, some odds and ends…
Theatre tickets from night of Lincoln assassination sell for… well, less than you...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/28/2023
Another federal judge has weighed the assertions made in an excessive fee suit—and found them lacking both in terms of a “meaningful benchmark,” and specificity of the claims made.
The Suit
The plaintiffs here—Jennifer R. Lard, John G. Juergens, Gerald L. Robinson, Scott W. Anderson, Thomas A....
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/27/2023
A suit alleging a breach of fiduciary duty has been filed because the plan fiduciaries offset employer contributions with forfeitures, rather than using them for the “exclusive benefit” of participants.
Plaintiff Konstantina Dimou, a participant in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 401(k)...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/26/2023
The ERISA litigation field in recent years has seen copycat filings, plagiarism in pleadings, factual flaws, and misleading assertions—but to my eyes, we’ve just hit a new low.
I’m speaking of what appears to be a new strategy, at least in this area of the law. Specifically, a California law firm...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/26/2023
The federal government wants to make sure that the judge in a Wisconsin case involving the Department of Labor’s ESG rule knows about its recent victory in a federal court in Texas.
In a “notice of supplemental authority,” the Department of Justice has brought to the attention of a federal...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/25/2023
A class action suit involving a data hack of participant data at a consulting firm has reached a $7.75 million cash settlement.
The suit arose from a November 2021 cyber security “incident” involving Horizon Actuarial Services LLC[i] and data on some 100,000 individuals who were signed up for...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/22/2023
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek …and yet, there’s no shortage of…well, just look at what happened to these guys and gals…
First, some odds and ends…
In Dublin, Ireland, a “huge, mysterious crater that looks out of this world” recently appeared on a local beach… well,...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/22/2023
“Having considered the motions, pleadings, and relevant law,” a federal court judge has backed the Labor Department in a suit brought by 26 red state Attorneys General challenging the so-called ESG rule.
The coalition[i] that brought the suit in January 2023, alleged that the 2022 Rule “undermines...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/21/2023
A four-year old case in which participants accused plan fiduciaries of “stuffing cash into a mattress” while at the same time forcing participants “to play the fool’s game” by offering only “high-cost actively managed funds” has come to terms.
Back in 2019, plaintiffs Gloria G. Ferguson and...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/20/2023
Plaintiffs have had their appeal of a district court’s dismissal of their excessive fee suit rejected by the appellate court.
Appellants Cole Matney and Paul Watts[i]—participants in the Barrick Gold 401(k) plan—filed suit against Barrick Gold of North America, Inc., Barrick Gold’s Board of...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/19/2023
My “retirement” isn’t even a year old—and for the most part, it’s played out pretty much as planned. There was, however, an area that caught us a bit flat-footed.
For us (and this has very much been a joint effort between me and my wife), that surprise was…Medicare.
Don’t get me wrong; to date...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/19/2023
The plaintiffs in one of the dozen or so cases involving the BlackRock Lifepath target-date funds (TDFs) have made it past the motion to dismiss stage.
In this case (Trauernicht et al. v. Genworth Financial Inc. et al., case number 3:22-cv-00532, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/19/2023
Noting that “prolonged investigations carried out by federal agencies, such as EBSA, create tremendous strain on retirement plan sponsors,” two key House Republicans are pushing back.
In a Sept. 19 letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the Education...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/18/2023
Noting that “a fiduciary breach cannot exist where no fiduciary duty applies,” American Airlines has pushed back on a participant-plaintiff’s amended claims regarding ESG-biased investments in his 401(k) plan.
In a motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s amended suit, American Airlines reiterated that...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/15/2023
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek…and yet, there’s no shortage of…well, just look at what happened to these guys and gals…
First, some odds and ends…
The most bizarre question asked at a press conference…ever?
In Chicago, Illinois, Jake Mazanke, got married recently…...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/15/2023
Summer may be winding down, but there’s been a LOT going on in the retirement world. In this episode, Nevin (Adams) and Fred (Reish) run down the hot topics, and the implications behind these trends.
In what has traditionally been a “quiet” news period, the retirement industry had been buzzing...
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