Defending Against Excessive Fee Cases: It’s All About Procedure
It’s crucial for plan sponsors to have and follow a good investment policy statement and to carefully document the reasons for all their decisions.
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There has been a surge of excessive fee lawsuits filed against plan sponsors in recent years. But there are strategies retirement plan sponsors and their attorneys can take to defend themselves, Carol Buckmann, ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] attorney and founding partner of Cohen & Buckmann, tells PLANSPONSOR.
“Even if a trial progresses, there are a lot of effective arguments that fiduciaries can make,” Buckmann says. “Most importantly, it is critical for them to show that they followed a prudent process in making their decision. Courts are not going to view their decisions with 20/20 hindsight. Rather, the courts want to see that based on the information that the fiduciaries had at the time they made their decision, they followed a