Fiduciaries of a retirement plan sponsored by DST Systems Inc., including investment management firm Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc. — will pay more than $124.6 million to resolve violations of ERISA. The Department of Labor (DOL) sued Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb in 2019 alleging that the firm used a “self-proclaimed investment strategy of ‘non-diversification’” that resulted in losses for the plan’s more than 9,000 participants.
According to the DOL, one pharmaceutical company’s stock grew to encompass more than 45% of the plan’s assets. An investigation by the DOL determined that the plan managers violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act for failure to diversify a plan’s investments in order to minimize the risk of losses.
