After the Supreme Court’s decision in Cunningham, the answer is: yes, hiring a third-party 401(k) service provider—if not documented and benchmarked appropriately—can expose a company to litigation. Let’s be clear: the lawsuit itself may not be about whether the provider performed poorly or charged too much. It may simply focus on the fact that the…
What Is the Cunningham v. Cornell Case and Why It Matters? In April 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the case of Cunningham v. Cornell University. The Court’s opinion has sent ripples through the retirement plan industry, fundamentally changing how courts interpret fiduciary responsibility under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act…