After Cyber Crime, Workplace Savers Face Long Odds to Get Repaid

Workplace retirement savers who fall victim to cyber crimes are finding they don’t always have an easy way to get their money back as employers and service providers grapple over who’s responsible.

The $19.8 trillion employer-sponsored retirement industry is ripe for web-based thieves, especially as portfolio management and distribution services shift online. Several high-profile federal lawsuits involving companies such as Abbott Laboratories Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Co., and Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. have shed light on the millions of dollars retirement savers are losing.

Those lawsuits also are exposing the extreme lengths to which workers and retirees must go to ...