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Compliance July 19, 2010
Blackout Notice Suit Allowed to Move Forward
A federal judge in Ohio ruled that a 401(k) profit-sharing plan and two participants can press forward with their lawsuit alleging that Principal Life Insurance Co. breached its duty to make a timely notice of a plan blackout period.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio ruled that Principal and various Principal entities named as defendants violated the 30-day blackout advance notice requirement in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
In making that ruling, Lioi rejected defense arguments that Principal was not plan administrator of the Roholt Vision Institute Inc. 401(K) Profit Sharing Plan. Lioi asserted that there was a “strong inference” that the defendants had been delegated the plan administrator role since they had control over a separate plan asset account.
In addition to the defendants’ ability to exercise control over the plan assets, Lioi also pointed to the fact that the Principal announced the blackout only hours before it started.
According to the opinion, Principal announced the blackout on September 25, 2008, that was to start the following morning and end three years after that.
The participants claimed their account values dropped because of the inability to transfer assets during that time.
The case is Roholt Vision Institute Inc. 401(K) Profit Sharing Plan v. Principal Life Insurance Co., N.D. Ohio, No. 5:09-CV-02431.