Three of the famous universities in the United States are now facing a lawsuit for retirement plans filed by their employees.
Complaints were individually filed on Tuesday against Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University by their employees accusing these universities of charging their retirement savings in excess of what they were supposed to be.
The complaint says that these universities who had the bargaining power allegedly allowed and did not monitor the payment schemes made by employees for their retirement plans which ended up a waste paying more for less service. Their efforts were also not enough to replace expensive investments with cheaper ones that could have saved them a lot of money, Seattle Times reported.
Yale's 403(b) retirement plan reached an asset amount of $3.6 billion in 2014. They complained about allowing multiple record keepers with a higher cost of funds. It said that in spite of its declaration of lowering the investment cost when it partnered in 2015 with TIAA, the payment schemes were still too high. The options to fully keep the employees from excessive fees were not considered.
New York University involved two 403(b) plans. Complainants declared that they were given more than 100 investment schemes which were too expensive. They also claimed that the administration did not use its bargaining power to do something about the prices gave them which can be given at lower cost.
From the 24,000 NYU participants, the plans made a $4.2 billion asset in 2014 alone.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the other hand, had a slightly different case. The university allegedly did not consider any other service provider due to its long time connection with Fidelity. They may have included some options but the majority of the options were Fidelity funds.
Representing the plaintiffs is Jerome J. Schlichter, a retirement plan litigation pioneer. He has settled prominent cases such as Boeing, Lockheed Marteen, International Paper and Cigna, The New York Times reported.
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