Hormel Must Face Suit Over 401(k) Share Class Options, Costs

Hormel Foods Corp. failed to shake a proposed class action challenging the funds in a pair of retirement plans covering the food manufacturer’s workforce.

The lawsuit validly alleges that Hormel breached its legal duties in offering a stable value fund from MassMutual that provided a lower guaranteed interest rate than a less risky option from the same company, Judge Susan Richard Nelson said. This allegation of underperformance is based on a meaningful benchmark because it compares funds from the same insurer that share the same goal, and it argues that the option intended to be safer produced higher returns, Nelson ...