The U.S. Supreme Court’s April 17 2025 ruling in *Cunningham v. Cornell University* reshaped the legal landscape for retirement‑plan fiduciaries by confirming that plaintiffs need only plead the bare elements of an ERISA § 406(a) prohibited‑transaction claim, leaving the plan sponsor to raise statutory exemptions as affirmative defenses. While the case name dominates headlines, the real question for practitioners is…
The Cunningham decision affects a huge segment of the U.S. economy. There are roughly 710,000 retirement plans covered under ERISA. The vast majority use third-party vendors—recordkeepers, investment platforms, custodians, or advisors. If even half of these plans engaged with a “party in interest” through payment of any fee, more than 350,000 plan sponsors could technically…