A group of former employees of Rollins Inc, Atlanta, sued the pest control company and fiduciaries of the company's 401(k) plan, alleging multiple ERISA violations.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 30 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, accuses the defendants of "failing to prudently select, monitor, and retain plan fiduciaries, plan service providers, and plan investments."
It also accused the defendants of " failing to follow the terms of the plan and ERISA; engaging or causing the plan to engage in transactions prohibited by ERISA; and failing to diversify plan investments."
The lawsuit, Fleming et al. vs. Rollins Inc. et al., seeks class-action status.
The lead plaintiff, Marcia G. Fleming, also filed an ERISA lawsuit against Rollins in December 2019, alleging ERISA violations in the Rollins 401(k) plan and in the 401(k) plan run by a Rollins subsidiary, Western Industries-North LLC. That complaint was dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta in November 2020, saying Ms. Fleming failed to "exhaust the administrative remedy process available to her before filing suit."
The current lawsuit noted that plaintiffs filed administrative complaints with Rollins and that the complaints were rejected in March 2021 and May 2021, leading to the filing of the latest lawsuit. (The Western 401(k) plan was not cited in this lawsuit).
The plaintiffs alleged that the Rollins defendants violated ERISA by "allowing excessive record-keeping fees; selecting high cost and poor performing investments compared to available alternatives; and failing to monitor the plan's investments generally."
The plaintiffs also sued LPL Financial, Alliant Insurance Services, Alliant Retirement Services "and their affiliates and representatives"as advisers to the Rollins plan on registered securities and drafting the plan's investment policy, the lawsuit said.
LPL Financial is a broker-dealer. The Alliant companies provide commercial insurance, employee benefits and retirement plan consulting. The Alliant and LPL defendants "alienated trust assets by receiving fees though they were merely serving as 'pass-through' entities and not necessary for the operation of the plan," the lawsuit said.
Representatives of Rollins, LPL and Alliant could not be reached or did not return requests for comment.
The Rollins 401(k) Savings Plan had assets of $1.05 billion as of Dec. 31, 2020, according to the latest Form 5500.
