Dive Brief:

• Bloomberg Business reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that 401(k) plans have a duty to monitor the investment options they offer when it comes to excessive fees.
• In the case, the high court unanimously revived claims that Edison International’s 401(k) plan should have shifted investors from the retail class shares of three funds into identical institutional class shares that carried lower fees.
• The ruling was a limited one that didn’t decide whether Edison should have jettisoned the retail class funds or address the extent to which it needed to review those investments. The justices instead sent the case back to a lower court to consider those questions.

Dive Insight:

Employment law experts agree that this ruling should help enployees who want to sue over underperforming funds and excessive fees. On the other hand, some experts also believe the ruling could backfire and employers may hesitate to offer 401(k) and similar plans or, even worse, might dump their retirement plans entirely.

As with every Supreme Court case, there is sure to be more to come.