A lawsuit between Transamerica Corporation and Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP filed on December 28, alleges the company violated its duties under ERISA and abused employees’ trust by mismanaging their retirement funds.

The lawsuit claims the company invested employee retirement savings into funds that consistently underperform in their investment benchmarks and similar funds. Documents allege Transamerica has cost its employees millions of dollars in retirement savings that were a part of the Transamerica 401(k) Plan. Plaintiffs Jeremy Karg, Matthew R.

LaMarche, and Shirley Rhodes have each filed the case individually as representatives of the estimated 17,000 participants of Transamerica’s 401(k) Plan. Documents list the Transamerica Corporation and the committees and their members that provide investment advice and services to the Plan as the defendants.

“Transamerica retained too many poor-performing investment options on the Plan which were highly detrimental to the retirement savings of Plan participants,” David Sanford, chairman of Sanford Heisler Sharp and counsel for Plaintiffs.

“Transamerica and the committees should be held to the highest standard as fiduciaries; but in this case they fall below the lowest standard.” The Plaintiffs claim Transamerica has failed to select investment options and monitor their performance, which is required by ERISA.

A spokesperson from Transamerica has released the following statement regarding the lawsuit: “Reflecting our core mission, Transamerica provides a retirement plan with matching contributions to our employees to help them prepare for a secure and confident retirement.

In addition to proprietary funds, many of which are sub-advised by unaffiliated investment managers, our Plan includes a range of non-proprietary funds (both actively and passively managed), low-cost collective investment trust funds and a subsidized stable value fund — and gives participants the option of investing in a variety of mutual funds through a Schwab brokerage window.

Transamerica also waives all Plan recordkeeping fees. Our business complies with all applicable state and federal statutes and regulations, and participates in periodic regulatory reviews. The allegations of wrongdoing against Transamerica in the recently filed lawsuit – which focuses on six ‘proprietary investment portfolios’ in the Plan – are false and we will vigorously oppose the case.”

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