2015-02-24

Companies Sued for Offering Bad 401(k)s

An attorney, Jerome  'Jerry' J. Schlichter,  has begun suing companies that only offer high-cost investments in their 401(k) plans.


Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Hears Case on 401(k) Plans

From the video:
"He did a lot of research into big company 401(k) plans and found... he had a lot of questions about, 'why are they picking these mutual funds versus these mutual funds? These mutual funds are higher cost than these... maybe there's a better way that we can do this.'  So he started more than a dozen lawsuits. ... The companies that he's reached settlements with have changed the mutual fund options in their plans, gone to lower-cost options, and agreed to disclose a lot more about what they're doing.

The broader implication is that fees are going to go down in plans. ... more index funds, more ETFs, that kind of thing."
He's arguing that only offering expensive investments is a breach of the plan manager's fiduciary duty as defined in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).  Go Jerry!

I've talked extensively about the importance of selecting low-cost investments.  The 401(k) is an important piece of the investing puzzle (after the IRA), but some 401(k)s lock you into lousy, expensive investments for the duration of your employment.  It's good to see that someone's doing something about this.