T. Rowe Price In-House 401(k) Suit Heads to Trial, With Warning

An 8,200-person class of participants in T. Rowe Price Group’s $1.7 billion 401(k) plan can go to trial on claims the company improperly favored its own investment products, but their chances of scoring a significant recovery are low, a Maryland federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The evidence against T. Rowe Price doesn’t suggest the firm was engaged in “shocking and pervasive mismanagement” of its retirement plan, Chief Judge James K. Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the Maryland said. But the plan participants presented sufficient evidence that they were harmed by the company’s unlawful actions, and that’s enough to go ...