Former employee Brian Byrne has filed a class action lawsuit against retirement services provider Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) and its fiduciaries. The suit alleges that TIAA breached its fiduciary duties and engaged in prohibited transactions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by charging higher fees to plan participants for the same investments than to other investors. The plaintiff also alleges that TIAA improperly retained its in-house fund, the College Retirement Equity Fund (CREF) Growth Fund, for the past 16 years despite its comparably lackluster performance. The suit seeks to certify a class of more than 28,000 participants and beneficiaries of the TIAA plans, which have over $9 billion in assets and more than $480 million of investments in the CREF Growth Fund.
Law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed the TIAA lawsuit in the aftermath of several significant ERISA class action settlements over the past year. In December 2024, the firm requested preliminary approval of a record-breaking $69 million settlement in its class action suit against UnitedHealth Group. Earlier that year, the firm obtained final approval of a $61 million settlement in a class action against General Electric.
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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
