John Hancock Beats $100 Million ERISA Foreign Tax Credit Row (1)

John Hancock Life Insurance Co. defeated an appeal by 401(k) trustees who say the company pocketed more than $100 million in foreign tax credits that should have gone to its retirement plan clients.

John Hancock wasn’t an ERISA fiduciary with regard to the credits, and to “rule otherwise” would give the plaintiffs a “windfall,” Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote Wednesday for the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The disputed tax credits were owned by John Hancock—and thus weren’t assets of the relevant 401(k) plan—which means the company didn’t owe a fiduciary duty under ERISA with respect to its ...