Testimony from Three Analysis Group Experts Helps Client Successfully Defend ERISA Class Action

May 28, 2025

Analysis Group was retained on behalf of a Fortune 100 company and that company’s 401(k) administrators, defendants in an ERISA class action. The class, participants in the company’s employee 401(k) plan, alleged that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties of prudence and monitoring by selecting and retaining certain target date funds (TDFs) as investment options despite underperformance. The class also alleged that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties by allowing plan participants to pay unreasonably high fees to advisory service providers.

An Analysis Group team led by Vice Presidents Peter Hess, Ben Samuels, and Katie Williams and Manager Ivan Kirov supported three experts who submitted reports and testified in the matter. Analysis Group Co-founder Bruce Stangle opined that the defendants’ process of selecting and monitoring the TDFs was reasonable and consistent with industry practices. Analysis Group affiliate Russell Wermers opined that, from an economic perspective, the TDFs were reasonable investments for the plan, and affiliate Steven Gissiner opined on the reasonableness of the advisory service providers’ fees for the investment advisory and managed account services they provided.

A judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment in an order citing the expert testimony. She observed that “based on [Professor] Wermers’ work and opinions, a reasonable jury readily could conclude that the…TDFs represented an objectively prudent investment decision by defendants.” She also relied on Mr. Gissiner’s submissions in her dismissal of the plaintiffs’ allegations related to advisory fees, noting his conclusion that “the compensation…received for providing investment advisory and managed account services to the [p]lan was reasonable, appropriate, and compared favorably to fees paid by other plans for similar services.”