Zander Insurance Accused of Forcing Ex-Workers Out of Stock Plan

Insurance agency Zander Group Holdings Inc. was hit with a proposed class action claiming it wrongly forced former workers to sell their shares in the company’s employee stock ownership plan.

Zander is accused of orchestrating an involuntary stock buyback that required former workers to have their accounts in the company’s employee stock ownership plan liquidated and rolled over into the company’s 401(k) plan. Plaintiff William Jones II, who served as IT manager at a Zander entity until 2014, says more than $750,000 was transferred from his stock plan account into Zander’s 401(k) plan without his consent.

This violated the stock ...