Seven 401(k) plan participants have filed a lawsuit against Nokia of America Corp., Murray Hill, N.J., its board, its plan committee and certain individuals, alleging all breached their ERISA fiduciary duties in the management of the company’s defined contribution plan.

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 13 in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., alleges the defendants breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 by failing to ensure each investment option’s costs were prudent, and by failing to control record-keeping and administrative costs, according to the court filing.

In the filing, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants mismanaged the plan by paying higher fees for customized separate accounts as investment options than they would have for mutual funds and by paying higher record-keeping fees and not frequently putting the services up for bid in an RFP process if “fee benchmarking reveals the record-keeper’s compensation to exceed levels found in other, similar plans.”

The lawsuit does not name the record-keeper.

As of Dec. 31, the Nokia Savings/401(k) Plan had $8.5 billion in assets, according to the most recent Form 5500 filing.

Carol DeMatteo, Nokia spokeswoman, and Mark K. Gyandoh and Donald R. Reavey, partners at Capozzi Adler, attorney for the plaintiffs, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Source: https://www.pionline.com/courts/nokia-america-accused-breaching-erisa-fiduciary-duties