Phillips 66 Workers Lose Suit Over 401(k)'s ConocoPhillips Stock

The committee in charge of Phillips 66’s 401(k) plan convinced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reject a proposed class action challenging the plan’s billion-dollar investment in the stock of former parent company ConocoPhillips Corp.

The committee satisfied its legal duties to diversify and prudently manage the plan by allowing Phillips 66 employees to keep their ConocoPhillips stock after the 2012 corporate spinoff that separated the two companies, the Fifth Circuit ruled May 22. The duty to diversify imposed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act requires only that plan fiduciaries “provide investment options that enable ...