Oracle Employees Face Setback in 401(k) Fee Class Action

Oracle Corp. employees who object to the fees in their 401(k) plan can’t tap a T. Rowe Price veteran to testify that a reasonable annual recordkeeping fee for a large retirement plan is less than $30 per participant.

Michael Geist, the employees’ expert witness and a retirement plan consultant, has “impressive credentials” but relied on “wholly opaque” criteria in determining what qualifies as a reasonable record-keeping fee, Judge Robert E. Blackburn of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado said Jan. 31.

Geist won’t be able to testify about record-keeping fee levels but may still testify about whether ...