Yale Win in Retirement Fee Trial Hinged on Process, Not Results

A jury verdict holding Yale University liable for mismanaging its retirement plan but declining to award damages illustrates that cases challenging administrative fees turn on the underlying decision-making process, rather than the results, attorneys told Bloomberg Law.

A federal jury in Connecticut ruled Wednesday that Yale violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by allowing its retirement plan to pay excessive recordkeeping fees. But jurors declined to award damages, ruling that this failure caused no harm because the fiduciary of a well-managed retirement plan could have made the same decisions.

The jury rejected the participants’ other claims, which accused fiduciaries ...