Story after story keep telling the same story – that class action litigation against ERISA plan sponsors and fiduciaries is a growth industry. Encore Fiduciary’s Daniel Aronowitz and Karolina Jozwiak have a great, data rich piece out in Planadvisor documenting this fact, and the legal media world is all atwitter about the latest new way
Class Actions
Boston ERISA and Insurance Litigation Blog’s Top Ten Countdown for the New Year – The Eighth Most Popular Post of 2024
It’s interesting. Blog posts have “legs” (you should get the intentional pun in a minute) for all sorts of reasons, and it can be hard to figure out why in any particular case. With regard to my eighth most popular blog post of 2024, it might have been the great picture of horses…
Boston ERISA and Insurance Litigation Blog’s Top Ten Countdown for the New Year – The Ninth Most Popular Post of 2024
Continuing with my countdown of my top ten most read blog posts of 2024 – as chosen by you, the reader! – leads me today to one of my favorite topics, namely the increasing targeting of small (relatively speaking) ERISA plans by class action firms bringing suits alleging that the plans were too expensive. In…
If Football Season Is in the Air, It’s Time to Talk About the NFL’s Concussion and CTE Benefits for Former Players
The Washington Post has a fascinating article today on the operation of the NFL’s disability claim system for addressing benefits due for neurological impacts from professional football. Although likely behind a paywall, the article is certainly worth a read. Its point is really that the system, which is the outcome of a negotiated class action…
Summary Judgment Proceedings in Breach of Fiduciary Duty Litigation: The Lessons of Sellers v. Boston College
I suspect every client I have ever represented in litigation can testify that I am overly fond of the old saying if you have the facts, argue the facts; if you have the law, argue the law; and if you have neither, jump up and down and scream. In my view, most of the time…
An Easy Read on the Past and Future of 401(k) Plan Litigation
This is a great story in Plan Adviser on the past and future of ERISA litigation over 401(k) plans. It’s a fun and short read, neither of which is normally true of articles on this subject. That’s a little tongue in cheek, but that phenomenon is nobody’s fault: when I have written on the subject…
What the Verdict in Yale Tells Us About My Time-Tested Way to Reduce Excessive Fee Litigation Against Plan Sponsors
When I recommended in a recent pair of blog posts that insurers and plan sponsors should make it a universal practice to try excessive fee class actions to conclusion, I wasn’t being flippant. I have probably spent 25,000 hours over the past thirty years advising insurers on when to try cases to conclusion – or…
There Is a Time-Tested Way to Reduce Excessive Fee Litigation Against Plan Sponsors (Part II)
I didn’t intend to write a second post (here’s the first) on the ever rising tide of excessive fee litigation, but the LinkedIn algorithm, responding to my posting of my first blog post on this issue, hand delivered me another great graphic, this one by Sompo International, on the same topic. What I…
Is It a Breach of Fiduciary Duty to Include Target Date Funds In 401(k) Plans?
Not long after I first started writing this blog, the Seventh Circuit began trying to preemptively squelch excessive fee litigation by, at heart, insisting that the invisible hand of the market would never have allowed the type of overcharging of fees claimed by the plaintiffs in those cases and that plan fiduciaries therefore could not…
An Interesting Commentary on the State of the Fiduciary Liability Insurance Market
I didn’t want July to pass without commenting on The Fid Guru’s excellent blog post reviewing excessive fee litigation over the first half of the year and the corresponding state of the fiduciary liability insurance market. I particularly appreciated the extensive discussion of the history of the market for fiduciary liability coverage, as it…