Columbia’s $13 Million Retirement Plan Settlement Gets Early OK

Columbia University’s $13 million settlement in a 28,000-person class action alleging retirement plan mismanagement received early approval from a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The settlement requires the school to make forward-looking improvements to its retirement plans, including paying certain vendor rebates to the plan, notifying plan participants of their right to redirect investments, and maintaining the cheapest available share class of certain plan investments. The school also pledged to instruct its recordkeeping vendors not to use plan participants’ personal information to advertise unrelated products.

Judge George B. Daniels signed the ...