, Columnist
The Legal Conflict at the Heart of U.S. Retirement Plans
Congress has yet to answer a basic question: Who should bear the risk?
We're past that point. But what should take their place?
Photographer: Drew Angerer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Last week, yet another slew of private retirement plan managers became the target of class-action lawsuits. This time it was a bunch of universities: Yale University, New York University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other schools have been sued for failing to properly oversee their employees’ retirement plans.
The lawyer behind the suits, Jerome Schlichter, has already hit companies for failing to administer their 401(k) plans responsibly; this latest wave of suits targets the so-called 403(b), a form of defined contribution plan used by non-profits like universities that closely resembles the 401(k).