PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to settle a 16-year-old ERISA case filed by former participants in a company pension plan who claimed fiduciaries improperly calculated lump-sum payments for a cash balance plan.
The notice of a settlement in principle was filed Tuesday by the plaintiffs' law firm, Gottesdiener Law Firm, in a New York U.S. District Court. No terms were identified, although the law firm said it would provide an update to the court withing 45 days in the case of Laurent et al. vs. PwC et al.
The plaintiffs sued in March 2006, saying PwC violated ERISA in its calculations that undervalued their cash balance accounts.
The plaintiffs argued that the PwC plan's definition of "normal retirement age" violates ERISA's guidelines and that the plan's use of 30-year Treasury securities in making its calculations shortchanged their accounts, according to court documents.
Following a series of lower court and appeals court rulings over the years, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in December 2019 supporting the plaintiffs.
PwC petitioned the Supreme Court in October 2020 to review the case. The justices asked the U.S. solicitor general's office for its view, and it recommended in May 2021 that the court deny review. The Supreme Court declined to review the case in June 2021.
