AABP EP Awards 728x90

Judge dismisses Deere lawsuit

/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/BR_web_311x311.jpeg

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit in which four workers accused Deere & Co. and Fidelity Investments of charging unreasonable fees and expenses to manage retirement savings, Reuters reported.

Judge John Shabaz of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin dismissed the suit, which alleged that Deere and Fidelity, which acts as a trustee and record keeper for Deere’s 401(k) plan, offered investment options that had “excessive and unreasonable fees and costs.”

The suit also claimed that Deere and Fidelity did not tell workers about these fees and kept silent about revenue-sharing arrangements under which the mutual fund firm administering the plans shares some of the fees it charges with the customer.

The court ruled that neither Deere nor Fidelity had to tell the workers about these matters.

The four Deere workers had sought class-action status for their suit, the latest in a series of suits filed on behalf of plan participants by St. Louis law firm Schlichter, Bogard & Denton.