T. Rowe Price 401(k) Class Ruling Stands, Despite Objections

An 8,200-person class of participants in T. Rowe Price Group’s $1.7 billion 401(k) plan lost its bid to have a Maryland federal judge reconsider portions of a recent opinion paving the way for a trial in their challenge to the plan’s investment options.

The participants objected to the court’s treatment of a “hardwiring provision” in the T. Rowe Price plan, which memorializes the company’s commitment to offering T. Rowe Price funds into the plan document itself. The court implicitly determined that this provision is legally valid, when it’s actually an illegal “anti-exculpation provision” that attempts to relieve plan fiduciaries from ...