Former HR Head Sues Investment Manager Alleging Retirement Plan Breaches

Hedge fund manager GWA, LLC and George A. Weiss, founder and CEO of the company’s investment adviser subsidiary Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers LLC, are facing a class action complaint filed on July 24 alleging violations of fiduciary duty and prohibited transactions provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by fiduciaries for the GWA, LLC 401(k) profit sharing plan. 

Beth Andrew-Berry, formerly director of human resources at Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers LLC, sued both defendants, alleging five separate fiduciary breach counts against each entity. The lawsuit is Beth Andrew-Berry et al. v. George A. Weiss and GWA, LLC. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut Hartford Division.

“Defendants violated ERISA’s fiduciary duties…and its prohibitions on self-dealing…by using the Plan and its assets to advance the business interests of GWA, LLC and its founder, George A. Weiss, over those of Plan participants—which are current and former employees of the Company,” Andrew-Berry alleges in the complaint. “As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ breaches of their fiduciary duties, the plan and its participants and beneficiaries have suffered tens of millions of dollars of losses.”

Andrew-Berry’s lawsuit, which was brought by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, targets the way the plan assets were invested and the assets’ investment in company funds and other concerns. Andrew-Berry is seeking to restore all losses suffered by the plan and its participants and obtain other equitable relief as provided under ERISA, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff claimed 11 instances of breach of fiduciary duty against defendants, under ERISA Section 404. 

The defendants allegedly breached their fiduciary duties by the following conduct, among other alleged violations:

• Indulging conflicts of interest when investing in inferior proprietary Weiss fund and failing to properly monitor those funds.
• Investing in and maintaining an excessive concentration in Weiss funds—the sole plan investments available to participants—for self-interested business reasons.
• Failing to consider the age demographics of Plan participants and their need to grow their retirement savings through assets and strategies aimed at capital appreciation and growth.

As of the most recent data available from December 31, 2021, the plan had approximately $103 million in assets and 187 participants, the complaint shows.

Weiss is a fiduciary to the plan and the plan’s trustee. Andrew-Berry is a participant in the GWA, LLC 401(k) profit-sharing plan, and was an employee of George Weiss Associated Inc. or one of its affiliates from 2016 until 2022, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff seeks to certify a class period applying to all participants in or beneficiaries of the GWA, LLC 401(K) Profit Sharing Plan (F/K/A the George Weiss Associates, Inc. 401(K) Profit Sharing Plan) at any time on or after July 24, 2017, the complaint states.

Representatives for the defendants did not return a request for comment.   

Andrew-Berry is represented by attorneys with the law offices of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, based in Washington, D.C.