Duane Morris Takeaway: The surge of class action litigation filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001 et seq., over the last several years persisted in 2025, with class action litigators in the plaintiffs’ bar continuing to focus on challenges ERISA fiduciaries’ management of 401(k) and other retirement plans. Plaintiffs continue to assert that ERISA fiduciaries breached their fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty by, among other things, offering expensive or underperforming investment options and charging participants excessive recordkeeping and administrative fees. Hundreds of fee and expense class actions have been filed since 2020, driven by a number of familiar plaintiffs’ class action law firms alongside some new entrants into the space.
