Dover 401(k) Fee Suit Tossed for Good Based on Faulty Benchmarks

Illinois-based equipment manufacturer Dover Corp. defeated a proposed class action by workers challenging their 401(k) plan’s administrative fee levels, after a federal judge said the case wasn’t based on meaningful benchmarks.

The workers compared their 401(k) plan’s administrative fees to those of other plans that appeared to receive a different suite of services, and they based certain comparisons on a single year without grappling with the steady decrease in their plan’s per-person fees, Judge LaShonda A. Hunt of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said in an Oct. 24 opinion.

This “flawed approach” flunks the ...