401(k) Fee Suits Flood Courts, Set for Fivefold Jump in 2020 (1)

Historians studying 2020 will focus on pandemics and presidential politics, but benefits lawyers may remember it as the year litigation over 401(k) fees turned from a steady stream to a flood.

Proposed class actions challenging 401(k) plan fees are on track for a fivefold increase between 2019 to 2020, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis. More than 60 cases were filed in the first eight months of 2020, compared to about 20 in all of 2019.

“It’s incredible to me how many cases have been filed in 2020,” Stacey C.S. Cerrone, a benefits attorney and principal at Jackson Lewis PC ...