Bailey Glasser Announces $2.4 Million Settlement With Allina Health To End ERISA Class Action

After months of negotiation, lawyers from Bailey Glasser reached an agreement with Allina Health System for the company to pay $2.4 million to resolve a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the company violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by failing to properly monitor record-keeping fees or seeks bids from different record-keeping services of their retirement plans.

Former Allina Health System employees Judy Larson, Janelle Mausolf, and Karen Reese sued the company in 2017, saying the health system “abdicated” its oversight over its two defined contribution retirement plans to Fidelity Management Trust Co., the plans’ trustee, by letting it include funds regardless of their cost, performance and appropriateness as retirement savings options. The suit also named Allina’s board of directors, chief administrative officer, chief human resources officer and retirement committee as defendants. The settlement is subject to court approval.

The Bailey Glasser team included Gregory Porter and Mark Boyko. Porter noted that “it is important that employers recognize their fiduciary duties with respect to their employees’ retirement savings, and we are pleased to help enforce these obligations.”

Co-counsel in this case includes Mark K. Gyandoh of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, Robert A. Izard, Mark P. Kindall, and Douglas Needham of Izard Kindall & Raabe LLP, and Kai H. Richter and Carl F. Engstrom of Nichols Kaster PLLP.