International Paper has agreed to pay $30 million and make some major changes to its retirement plans to settle an excessive fees lawsuit brought by current and former plan participants.
The case, which was filed on Sept. 11, 2006, was one of the first such cases to be filed against a 401(k) plan by participants who claimed they paid $58 million in unreasonable recordkeeping and administration fees.
The lawsuit also asserted that International Paper forced employees to put money into company stock if they wanted to receive an employer matching contribution. Plan participants were prohibited from taking money out of the Company Stock Fund until they reached age 55 and they could only withdraw 20 percent per year after that. So, the Company Stock Fund held up to 57 percent of the plan's assets, with more than one-third of participants holding over 90 percent of their account balances in company stock.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
