Putnam Denied SCOTUS Review of 401(k) Loss Causation Question

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear a case against Putnam Investments LLC that asks how litigants prove that mismanagement of a retirement plan caused the plan to suffer losses.

The case asks which parties—the fiduciaries of employee benefit plans or the people covered by those plans—have the burden of proving that alleged fiduciary misconduct caused plan losses. If the burden is on plan participants, fiduciaries can win in court even if a judge determines that they’ve mismanaged the plan or violated the law.

Putnam is accused of filling the 401(k) plan covering its employees with expensive, affiliated mutual funds that ...