MIT Retirement Plan Class Action Trimmed But Heading to Trial

The 16,000-person class action targeting Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s retirement plan is moving toward its Sept. 16 trial date, after the District of Massachusetts declined the school’s request to end the case before trial.

The plan participants can go to trial on claims the school imprudently failed to monitor underperforming funds and wrongly allowed the plan to pay excessive administrative fees to Fidelity Investments, Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton held Sept. 4. The parties presented “compelling and competing narratives” on whether MIT’s processes—including its alleged failure to seek proposals from Fidelity’s competitors—satisfied the fiduciary standards of the Employee Retirement Income Security ...