As seen in Law360, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe of the Southern District of New York certified a class of up to 200,000 Verizon workers who participated in a Verizon 401(k) plan.

The lawsuit alleges mismanagement of funds in the Verizon 2040 target-date-fund (TDF), specifically Verizon’s Global Opportunity Fund. The fund was noted as having “obvious and long-term underperformance over a ten-year period”. The complaint alleges that the fund has seriously underperformed against other funds such as Vanguard,.

Verizon argued there was no constitutional standing for the lawsuit, claiming that the plaintiff did not invest into the fund and therefore did not have standing. Plaintiff’s counsel countered that she was injured by the alleged breach of fiduciary duty from the mismanaged investment and that the loss of potential gains constituted a loss. The judge ruled that the case can move forward as a class action.

The class consists of all participants of the 401(k) retirement plan who had money saved in the Global Opportunity Fund during the relevant time period. The participation could be direct or indirect and may include 200,000 workers.

Todd M. Schneider, partner at Schneider Wallace and one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff, was quoted in Law360 that they “look forward to moving this certified class to trial.”

Jacobs v. Verizon Communications Inc. et al., case number 1:16-cv-01082, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP – ERISA Lawyers

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP represents the plaintiff in the above case and employees whose 401(k) investments have suffered losses due to corporate misrepresentations or other wrongdoing.  It is often not prudent for 401(k) planners to recommend or even allow investment in company stock, or direct employees into low performance high fee white label funds. Schneider Wallace has filed multiple cases against the largest companies in the United States, including banking and financial institutions, on behalf of hundreds of thousands of employees who have been victims of improper plan fiduciary actions.

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