Elanco 401(k) Investors Sue Over Target-Date Fund Performance

Elanco US Inc.'s 401(k) plan participants hit the veterinary medicine company with a proposed class action claiming its plan is plagued by poorly performing target-date funds.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, challenges a suite of target-date funds from non-party American Century that previously served as the Elanco plan’s default investment option. These funds, which held more than two-thirds of the plan’s assets between 2020 and 2023, consistently underperformed their benchmarks and experienced an “alarming turnover rate and loss of market share” that should have prompted the company to take action, ...