MADISON, Wis. — A federal judge in Wisconsin has granted preliminary approval to a proposed settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging excessive fees and fiduciary breaches in a multi-employer credit union retirement plan, according to court filings.
The case, Lucero et al. v. Credit Union Retirement Plan Association et al., was filed in April 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin and centers on a 401(k) plan serving employees at more than 100 credit unions.
Plaintiffs Brenda L. Lucero, Heather Barton, Cynthia Hurtado and Ilona Kompaniiets alleged that plan fiduciaries failed to control recordkeeping and administrative costs and breached their duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, according to the complaint.
Significant Turn
The litigation took a significant turn in January 2024, when U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson denied class certification, citing wide variations in the fees paid by participants.
“Participants in the plan paid widely varying fees depending on their employer and the arrangements negotiated with the recordkeeper,” Peterson wrote in the order.
The judge concluded that “common questions” did not outweigh individual differences among participants, ruling that “plaintiffs have not shown that common questions predominate over individual ones.”
Peterson also found that three of the four named plaintiffs lacked standing, writing that “the fees they paid fall within the range they contend is reasonable,” leaving only one plaintiff’s claim to proceed at that stage.
Case Moves Forward
Despite those setbacks, the parties later reached a proposed settlement. A March 30 filing shows the court granted preliminary approval, allowing the case to move forward with notifying class members and scheduling a final approval hearing to determine whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate.
The CURPA plan is structured as a multiple-employer arrangement in which individual credit unions negotiate separate agreements, a structure that became central to the court’s analysis and the plaintiffs’ claims.
Although the plan included more than 100 participating credit unions, the case focused on employees from FirstLight Federal Credit Union and California Coast Credit Union, with roughly 1,000 participants involved, according to court filings.
Specific terms of the proposed settlement, including any monetary relief or changes to plan oversight, were not detailed in the publicly available filings tied to the preliminary approval.
The case reflects a broader wave of ERISA litigation targeting fees and fiduciary oversight in employer-sponsored retirement plans, particularly those involving complex or multi-employer structures.
Final approval of the settlement would bring the nearly four-year dispute to a close.
