Associated Banc-Corp Accused of Self-Dealing in ERISA Lawsuit
Participants have filed a suit alleging the bank used its retirement plan to promote its investment products.
Reported by
Participants in the Associated Banc-Corp 401(k) and Employee Stock Ownership Plan have filed an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) lawsuit against Associated Banc-Corp and its retirement plan administrative committee for “applying an imprudent and inappropriate preference for products associated with Associated Bank within the plan, despite their poor performance and lack of traction among fiduciaries of similarly sized plans.”
The plaintiffs also allege that the defendants failed to monitor or control the plan’s recordkeeping expenses, which were paid to Associated Bank’s subsidiary, costing the plan millions of dollars in excessive administrative fees.
Oops.
A review of many âall-weatherâ strategies â as outlined by market guru Meb Faber in his (free) book Global Asset Managementâshows that very few sidestepped Marchâs maelstrom, most of them suffering sharp falls in value.
Meanwhile they are all ending the year behind a simple S&P 500Â SPX,
+0.57% Â stock index fund such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY,
On the plus side: A couple performed well, causing few, if any, sleepless nights during the depths of the crisis and ending the year nearly behind the S&P 500.
I ran models of the main âall-weatherâ strategies, using the portfolio tools offered by YCharts.com, a financial website. I constructed the portfolios using exchange-traded funds available to any average Joe or Joanna saving for their retirement.