For many employees, employer-sponsored 401(k), 403(b), and private pension plans play a critical role in their plans for a financially secure retirement. Most people trust their employers to ensure that their employer-sponsored retirement plans are well managed; few people have the expertise or the time to scrutinize the details of a retirement plan’s investment options. But at times of transition, such as when leaving a job or approaching retirement, many employees are disturbed to learn that their employers have mismanaged their retirement assets, often for many years. Unfortunately, pension mismanagement is common among the country’s largest employers, including Fortune 500 companies and major non-profits, such as universities and hospital systems. On This Page

• What Happens When an Employer Mismanages 401(k) Plans?
• Why Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight
• Our Financial Services Litigation Practice Group
• Types of ERISA Cases We Handle

What Happens When an Employer Mismanages 401(k) Plans?

When employers fail to appropriately manage 401(k), 403(b), or private pension plans, employees have legal rights. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for how employers should manage retirement plans. Under law, employers must act diligently when they select which investments to offer, carefully monitor investments on an ongoing basis, remove imprudent investments, avoid conflicts of interest, and prevent excessive fees.

Why Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight

At Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight we have unique expertise to identify cases of 401(k) mismanagement and violations of ERISA, and we pursue multi-million-dollar class actions to benefit the employees we represent – plus the many thousands of other plan participants who have been similarly wronged.

Our Financial Services Litigation Practice Group

We have a dedicated Financial Services Litigation Practice Group founded by Charles Field, the former General Counsel of an SEC-registered investment management firm, where he oversaw compliance with ERISA and securities laws; served on the company’s investment, investment performance, and securities valuation committees; and constructed hundreds of funds that are the very type at issue in the class action lawsuits that Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight litigates. Our Financial Services Litigation Practice Group has extensive experience evaluating complex investment data, regulatory filings, and retirement plan documents to evaluate whether employers have mismanaged 401(k), 403(b), and pension plans.

Types of ERISA Cases We Handle

Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight's Financial Services Litigation Practice Group has brought ERISA class actions against a multitude of major corporations, including UnitedHealth, Allstate, Walgreens, Transamerica, General Electric (GE), and Home Depot. We prosecute a multitude of ERISA violations, including where:

• The employer offered poor performing investment options, such as poor performing target date funds (TDFs);
• The employer offered poor performing proprietary mutual funds managed by their employer or affiliated company;
• The employer offered investment products with high fees when a cheaper option was available;
• The employer did not use the size of the plan to negotiate a lower fee with third-party vendors;
• The employer included investment products that paid rebates to or shared revenue with the employer;
• Plan participants were charged excessive administrative fees, advisor fees, or investment fees;
• Plan participants were charged for “robo-advisers” such as Financial Engines.

If you want to find out if your ERISA rights have been violated, reach out to the Financial Services Litigation Practice Group at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight.