BarbriSFCourseDetails
  • videocam Live Webinar with Live Q&A
  • calendar_month April 7, 2026 @ 1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
  • signal_cellular_alt Intermediate
  • card_travel ERISA
  • schedule 90 minutes

Retirement Plan Investment and Excessive Fee Litigation: Recent Developments

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$252.45
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Discount expires 3/5/26

This course is $0 with these passes:

CLE
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About the Course

Introduction

This CLE course will discuss the current landscape of retirement plan investment and fee litigation. The discussion will focus on the investments and fee litigation arising from the offering of investment products and services in client plans. The panel will discuss Anderson v. Intel Corp., Hughes v. Northwestern University, Cunningham v. Cornell, and other cases, and will also address how plan sponsors and fiduciaries can avoid or mitigate the risk of litigation in this changing legal environment.

Description

Financial services companies typically offer their products—mutual funds, insurance contracts, collective trusts, and delegated investment management services—to their employees and clients in company-sponsored 401(k) and retirement plans. These products and services can create additional risks for sponsors and fiduciaries and raise complicated issues under ERISA's prohibited transaction and fiduciary rules.

These complex issues have moved front and center in both the regulatory and litigation arenas as plaintiffs challenge the prudence and performance of these investments and associated fees and expenses. These challenges raise the specter of expensive litigation and potential liability affecting both financial services companies and their clients.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Anderson v. Intel Corp. where plaintiffs challenge the Ninth Circuit's ruling, arguing that the pleading rules conflict with ERISA's prudence standard when that court held that certain benchmarks must be met at the pleadingstage in ERISA cases.

Listen as our experienced panel of ERISA attorneys discusses the legal issues that can arise from offering proprietary or affiliated products in ERISA-covered retirement plans. The panel will discuss regulatory and litigation challenges in recent cases and explain how plan sponsors and fiduciaries can avoid or mitigate the additional risk these offerings create.

Presented By

Brienne Letourneau
Partner
Sidley Austin LLP

Ms. Letourneau is a skilled litigator who handles complex business disputes, high-stakes ERISA and consumer class actions, and other critical matters for businesses and institutions. She represents public and private companies and organizations across sectors such as financial services, consumer goods, asset management, and higher education, as well as directors, officers, trustees, and other fiduciaries. Ms. Letourneau combines strategic insight, creativity, and practical judgment to deliver results that resolve her clients’ legal challenges and advance their business objectives.

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David Levine
Principal, Executive Committee Chair
Groom Law Group

Mr. Levine advises plan sponsors, advisors, and other service providers on a wide range of employee benefits matters, from retirement and executive compensation to health and welfare plan matters. He advises on the design and redesign of complex retirement, executive, and health and welfare plans; ongoing, day-to-day counseling of plan sponsors; in-depth compliance reviews of corporate and governmental benefit programs; products and compliance for retirement and health service providers, and representation of tax-exempt organizations with respect to issues involving corporate governance, executive compensation, and unrelated business income tax liability. Mr. Levine was previously the Chair of the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (2011-2013) and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and serves in a number of leadership roles in the American Bar Association Tax Section’s Employee Benefits Committee. He regularly speaks on plan design, fiduciary governance, and legislative issues and contributes a recurring column to NAPA Net — The Magazine. Mr. Levine is recognized in the Chambers USA guide for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation.  

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Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Tuesday, April 7, 2026

  • schedule

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

I. Risks with offering proprietary funds in retirement plans and the varied legal standards

II. Anderson v. Intel Corp.

III. Breach of fiduciary duty

IV. DOL investigations and class action complaints

V. Anticipating the next wave of retirement plan litigation

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • What are the legal theories presented in recent ERISA fee litigation and fiduciary liability cases?
  • What is the impact of SCOTUS granting certiorari in Anderson v. Intel Corp?
  • How might a finding of a fiduciary breach concerning products and services impact the provider’s business model?
  • What are the steps that can be taken to avoid problems before they erupt into a DOL investigation and an ERISA class action?
  • Looking ahead, what are the issues the plaintiffs' bar will focus on in the next wave of retirement plan litigation?