series of suits alleging that the use of forfeitures to offset employer contributions was a fiduciary breach. Nevin (Adams) and Fred (Reish) look at the issue(s) this raises. 

and the regulatory agencies, which have declared for decades that forfeitures can be used in this manner,” says a recent motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a fiduciary breach in offsetting employer contributions with forfeitures. 

filed against Intuit, less than two weeks after filing an identical action against the Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 401(k)

Retirement Plan. This suit, filed in the Northern District of California, acknowledges that “the Plan provides that forfeited nonvested accounts may be used to pay Plan administrative expenses or reduce future Company matching contributions.” Its language mirrors almost exactly three other such suits filed

in either the Northern or Southern districts in California, including Clorox, Qualcomm and HP, all of which operated with plan documents that permitted—but did not require—that offset.