Benefits May 1, 2023

USI Consulting Brings on DB Pension Exit Experts

The retirement consultancy brings on actuarial expertise with acquisition of Hooker & Holcombe.

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USI Consulting Group, a retirement plan consulting and benefits administration firm, has acquired Hooker & Holcombe Inc. an actuarial, investment advisory and retirement plan consultancy, the Glastonbury, Connecticut-based USI announced Monday.

USI will bring on Hooker & Holcombe’s team of 68 employees, including the executive team led by Richard S. Sych. Bloomfield, Connecticut-based Hooker & Holcombe provides actuarial services, including winding down defined benefit pension plans, as well as 401(k) and 403(b) plan design, consulting, and participant education and engagement.

“For more than 67 years, through the expertise of our dedicated and knowledgeable professionals, H&H has built a strong reputation for delivering effective retirement plan solutions that exceed client expectations,” Sych, Hooker & Holcombe’s president, said in a statement. “We look forward to advancing this longstanding tradition of service excellence through our partnership with USI Consulting Group.”

The companies did not disclose terms of the deal; retirement M&A consultancy Wise Rhino Group represented Hooker & Holcombe in the transaction.

“Hooker & Holcombe has been one of the most well-respected names in actuarial and retirement services for many years,” Peter Campagna, a partner at Wise Rhino Group, said in a statement. “Partnering with a dynamic, growing and diversified firm like USI gives the H&H team an expanded base of resources and tools to take their already outstanding service to another level. These two firms are a terrific match and have a very bright future together.”

USI offers plan advice, consulting and administrative services to retirement plan sponsor clients and participants through 600 retirement advisers, according to its website. The firm currently has more than 3,800 retirement plan clients representing $33 billion in assets under advisement.

“We are thrilled to welcome the talented professionals from H&H to the USI family and look forward to strengthening USI’s retirement consulting expertise throughout the country,” Bill Tremko, CEO and president of USI, said in a statement.

Benefits May 1, 2023

ERISA Lawsuit Against Kellogg Dismissed

The retirement plan lawsuit, originally filed in 2020, alleged fiduciary breaches committed by the ERISA finance and administrative plan committee.

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A federal judge in Michigan dismissed the 2020 class action lawsuit Fleming v Kellogg Co. et al. on April 27 by approving Kellogg’s motion to dismiss, according to the court order.      

U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering, presiding in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division, dismissed with prejudice two alleged counts of fiduciary breach brought before the court. The nature of the ruling means the purported class of plaintiffs cannot refile the case.

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Beckering’s judgment referenced a bench opinion filed one day earlier during oral arguments on the motion to dismiss, of which a transcript has not yet been made available.

Kellogg submitted a motion to dismiss the complaint in September 2022, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim and lacked standing to bring suit, according to the court filings.   

The plaintiff, Bradley Fleming, was a former accountant at Kellogg who sued for breach of fiduciary duty to retirement plan participants of the Kellogg Company Savings and Investment Plan under the Employee Retirement Income Savings Act, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff’s amended complaint, submitted in 2022, alleged the Kellogg ERISA finance and ERISA administrative committee committed two counts of fiduciary breach: failing to monitor plan recordkeeping costs by causing participants to pay excessive fees for recordkeeping services and failing to adequately monitor other fiduciaries.

Fleming and the never-certified class of plaintiffs alleged Kellogg’s retirement plan fiduciaries should have used the size of the plan as a bargaining chip to negotiate lower plan fees and expenses, according to the complaint. In 2020, the plan held more than $1.9 billion in retirement assets for 12,244 participants, according to the complaint.

Transamerica Retirement Solutions was the recordkeeper for the Kellogg retirement plan from 2016 to 2020, and Fidelity took over in 2021, the record shows.

Kellogg Co., its board of directors, the ERISA finance committee and its administrative committee were all named in the lawsuit. Kellogg did not return a request for comment on the lawsuit’s dismissal

Representing the defendants were attorneys from the law offices of Jenner & Block LLP, based in Chicago; and Miller Johnson PLC, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Troy Haney, of the Haney Law Office PC, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and attorneys with the law firm Walcheske & Luzi LLC, based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, represented the plaintiff.  

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