John Hancock Beats ERISA Suit Over 401(k) Foreign Tax Credits

John Hancock Life Insurance Co. defeated a class action claiming it wrongly pockets foreign tax credits belonging to its 401(k) plan customers when a Florida federal judge ruled the company wasn’t obligated by law or contract to rebate the amounts.

John Hancock didn’t act as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act when it retained the foreign tax credits earned by 401(k) assets held in it sub-accounts, Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida held Monday.

Goodman said these credits “had no intrinsic value” to the 401(k) plans, because under ...