Erisa Lawsuit Brought Against Mutual Of America
The plaintiffs have alleged Mutual of America plan fiduciaries using a closed-architecture recordkeeping platform caused plan participants to pay excessive fees for recordkeeping and administrative services.
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Retirement plan participants have brought a class action lawsuit against Mutual of America Life Insurance Company for alleged breach of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Plaintiffs have alleged Mutual of America 401 plan fiduciaries breached its fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence to participants by selecting a proprietary, closed architecture recordkeeping platform and for failing to monitor or control the plans administrative expenses, the complaint states.
Through the class period Mutual of America used its own proprietary closed-architecture recordkeeping platform, causing participants to pay annual administrative fees roughly times higher than what participants would have paid for administrative services had Mutual of America diligently investigated the marketplace and hired a third-party recordkeeper to provide either the same set of services or services of superior quality, according to the court document.
The plaintiffs brought one count, for breach of fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence, against Mutual of America.
Mutual of America is an insurance company headquartered and incorporated in New York. Mutual of America also provides retirement plan services to the small retirement plan market.
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Mutual Of America Financial Group Announces Agreement To Acquire Landmark Life Insurance Company
NEW YORK, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Mutual of America Financial Group announced today that it has entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement to acquire Landmark Life Insurance Company, a widely licensed Texas life and annuity insurance company . The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.
“The acquisition of Landmark Life represents another positive step toward achieving Mutual of America’s strategic growth plans in the guaranteed retirement income space,” said John R. Greed, Chairman, President and CEO of Mutual of America Financial Group.
Simpa Baiye, Executive Vice President and Chief Actuary of Mutual of America Financial Group, added, “This transaction will enhance our financial and distribution capacities to provide guaranteed income solutions and other products to individuals outside the state of New York.”
Tom Munson, CEO of Landmark Life and Jarvis Family general partner, stated, “The sale of Landmark Life represents a meaningful step toward our plans to focus on providing high-value, third-party administrative services to life insurers nationwide.”
Merger & Acquisition Services, Inc., served as the financial advisor, and Eversheds Sutherland LLP served as the legal advisor to Mutual of America for the acquisition. Propel Advisory Group, Inc., served as the financial advisor, and Winstead PC served as the legal advisor to The Jarvis Family Limited Partnership.
Wealth And Income Disparity
New York City, like other large cities, has a high degree of , as indicated by its of 0.55 as of 2017. In the first quarter of 2014, the average weekly wage in New York County was $2,749, representing the highest total among large counties in the United States. As of 2017, New York City was home to the highest number of of any city in the world at 103, including former . New York also had the highest density of millionaires per capita among major U.S. cities in 2014, at 4.6% of residents. New York City is one of the relatively few American cities levying an on its residents. As of 2018, there were 78,676 in New York City.
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They Support Our Employees And Their Planning For The Future
but they also support our organization and the mission of what we’re doing here for patients. We really feel like we have a very personal touch, personal relationship with the folks at Mutual of America.”
– Lori Bassett, Head of Communications of Greenwood Genetic Center
Our services, designed for the service level you select, include:
- Plan document services, including plan documents, restatements, amendments, Summary Plan Descriptions and Summary of Material Modification.
- Recordkeeping and other administrative services, such as receiving and processing periodic payroll feeds to participant accounts based on information provided by you or your payroll provider, processing new participant enrollments, maintaining plan and individual account records, executing participant-initiated investment transactions, processing participant requests related to loans and distributions, providing participant access to accounts and providing a plan sponsor website with access to participant-level and plan-level information.
- lnvestment-related services, including making investment options available from which you or your investment fiduciary may select an investment menu to be made available to your plan participants.
- Employee education, communication and enrollment.
Your local Mutual of America office can provide a complete list of the services we provide.
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Mutual Of America Financial Group To Acquire Landmark Life Insurance Company
Mutual of America Financial Group announced today that it has entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement to acquire Landmark Life Insurance Company, a widely licensed Texas life and annuity insurance company. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.
The acquisition of Landmark Life represents another positive step toward achieving Mutual of Americas strategic growth plans in the guaranteed retirement income space, said John R. Greed, Chairman, President and CEO of Mutual of America Financial Group.
Simpa Baiye, Executive Vice President and Chief Actuary of Mutual of America Financial Group, added, This transaction will enhance our financial and distribution capacities to provide guaranteed income solutions and other products to individuals outside the state of New York.
Tom Munson, CEO of Landmark Life and Jarvis Family general partner, stated, The sale of Landmark Life represents a meaningful step toward our plans to focus on providing high-value, third-party administrative services to life insurers nationwide.
Merger & Acquisition Services, Inc., served as the financial advisor, and Eversheds Sutherland LLP served as the legal advisor to Mutual of America for the acquisition. Propel Advisory Group, Inc., served as the financial advisor, and Winstead PC served as the legal advisor to The Jarvis Family Limited Partnership.
Icipants Sue Mutual Of America Over Record Keeping Proprietary Products
Current and former participants in a 401 plan offered by Mutual of America Life Insurance Co. sued the company for violating ERISA in its record-keeping and investment policies.
“By using its own proprietary record keeping platform and by failing to control or monitor the plan’s administrative expenses,” the company “caused plan participants to pay excessive administrative fees,” said the lawsuit filed Sept. 14 in a U.S. District Court in New York.
The company “also applied an imprudent and disloyal preference for its own proprietary funds within the plan despite their poor performance and high costs,” said the lawsuit in the case of Goldstein et al. vs. Mutual of America Life Insurance Co.
The plaintiffs criticized the plan’s closed architecture record-keeping policy because it “limits a plan’s investment menu to one of the approximately 50 investment options that Mutual of America makes available, including numerous Mutual of America proprietary investments,” the lawsuit said.
“While it is not per se imprudent to use a proprietary closed-architecture recordkeeping platform, plan fiduciaries must monitor and control recordkeeping expenses, which includes investigating the recordkeeping options available to a plan,” the lawsuit said.
The Mutual of America Life Insurance Company Savings Plan, New York, had assets of $436 million as of Dec. 31, 2020, according to the latest Form 5500.
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Province Of New York And Slavery
In the early 18th century, New York grew in importance as a while as a part of the . It also became a center of , with 42% of households enslaving Africans by 1730, the highest percentage outside , . Most cases were that of , as a New York household then commonly enslaved few or several people. Others were hired out to work at labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York’s economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with the . During construction in in the 1990s, the was discovered the cemetery included 10,000 to 20,000 of graves of colonial-era Africans, some enslaved and some free.
The 1735 trial and acquittal in Manhattan of , who had been accused of after criticizing colonial governor , helped to establish the in North America. In 1754, was founded under charter by as King’s College in Lower Manhattan.
Water Purity And Availability
The New York City drinking water supply is extracted from the protected . As a result of the watershed’s integrity and undisturbed natural system, New York is one of only four major cities in the United States the majority of whose drinking water is pure enough not to require purification through plants. The city’s municipal water system is the largest in the United States, moving over one billion gallons of water per day a leak in the Delaware aqueduct results in some 20 million gallons a day being lost under the . The north of the city is undergoing construction of a $3.2 billion water purification plant to augment New York City’s water supply by an estimated 290 million gallons daily, representing a greater than 20% addition to the city’s current availability of water. The ongoing expansion of , an integral part of the New York City water supply system, is the largest capital construction project in the city’s history, with segments serving and the completed, and with segments serving and planned for construction in 2020. In 2018, New York City announced a $1 billion investment to protect the integrity of its water system and to maintain the purity of its unfiltered water supply.
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Higher Education And Research
More than a million students, the highest number of any city in the United States, are enrolled in New York City’s more than 120 higher education institutions, with more than half a million in the system alone as of 2020, including both degree and professional programs.According to , New York City has, on average, the best higher education institutions of any .
The city also hosts other smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as , , , , – Manhattan, , , , , , , , , , and .
Much of the in the city is done in medicine and the . In 2019, the New York metropolitan area ranked first on the list of cities and metropolitan areas by share of published articles in life sciences. New York City has the most postgraduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, and in 2012, 43,523 licensed physicians were practicing in New York City. There are 127 with roots in local institutions as of 2004.
Major biomedical research institutions include , Rockefeller University, , , , and , being joined by the / venture on . The graduates of in the Bronx earned the highest average annual salary of any university graduates in the United States, $144,000 as of 2017.
Culture And Contemporary Life
New York City has been described as the cultural capital of the world by Manhattan’s . A book containing a series of essays titled New York, Culture Capital of the World, 19401965 has also been published as showcased by the . In describing New York, author said, “Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.”
Numerous major American cultural movements began in the city, such as the , which established the African-American literary canon in the United States. The city became the center of in the early 20th century, in the 1940s, in the 1950s, and the birthplace of in the 1970s. The city’s and scenes were influential in the 1970s and 1980s. New York has long had a flourishing scene for .
The city is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the in literature and visual art ” rel=”nofollow”> New York School) in painting and ,, , , , certain forms of , and in music. New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world. The city is also frequently the setting for novels, movies , and television programs. is one of the world’s preeminent fashion events and is afforded extensive coverage by the media. New York has also frequently been ranked the top of the world on the annual list compiled by the .
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Mutual Of America Insurance Company
Mutual of America Insurance Company320 Park AvenueNew York, NY 10022-6839800-468-3785
Mutual of America Life Insurance Company is an insurance provider based in New York, New York. A Fortune 1000 mutual company, Mutual of America is ranked on the Forbes 500 list as the tenth largest insurance company in the United States. Founded in 1945, Mutual of America has specialized in providing retirement products and related services to private individuals and organizations as well as their employees for over 60 years. The company is licensed to do business in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Mutual of America provides variable universal life insurance, group life insurance and disability insurance products. The company also offers pension and retirement-related products and services. Furthermore, it provides products and services for employee benefit plans of non-profit organizations and corporations including their employees. Life insurance and retirement products are also available to individuals, and mutual funds to institutional investors are part of their benefits. Mutual of America distributes its products and provides customer support through consultants located in its main office and in 36 regional offices located across the United States.
Mutual of America is headed by chief executive officer Thomas Moran.
Retirement Savings Plan Overview
Providing the information you need to open a plan with Mutual of America today.
The 401 is one of the most popular forms of defined contribution retirement savings plans. Employees who participate in the plan make contributions, usually through payroll deductions. 401 plan sponsors often make a base and/or matching contribution.
Benefits for employers
- Funded in part from dollars paid as salary, and employer contributions , up to certain statutory limits
- Helps attract and retain quality employees
- Helps your employees build retirement security
Benefits for your employees
- Easy to save through payroll deduction
- Choice of how much to save, subject to applicable lRS limits
- Savings amounts can be adjusted as needs change
- May reduce taxable income
- Defers taxes on the amount saved and earned, until the participant receives benefits, unless received as tax-free qualified Roth distributions. Generally, withdrawals are subject to income tax at your ordinary income tax rate at the time of withdrawal and may be subject to a 10% federal tax penalty unless certain exceptions apply.
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Primary And Secondary Education
The system, managed by the , is the largest public school system in the United States, serving about 1.1 million students in more than 1,700 separate primary and secondary schools. The city’s public school system includes nine to serve academically and artistically . The city government pays the to educate a very small, detached section of the Bronx.
The New York City Charter School Center assists the setup of new . There are approximately 900 additional privately run secular and religious schools in the city.
Mutual Of America To Buy Landmark Life Insurance Company
Mutual of America Financial Group has signed an agreement to purchase Texas-based life and annuity insurer Landmark Life Insurance Company for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 1964, Landmark Life is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Jarvis Family Limited Partnership.
The firm is engaged in underwriting life insurance and annuities across 36 US states.
Mutual of America Financial Group chairman, president and CEO, John Greed called the takeover a positive step toward attaining its growth targets in the guaranteed retirement income sector.
Landmark Life CEO Tom Munson said that the deal is a meaningful step towards the firms strategy to emphasise on offering third-party administrative services to life insurers across the nation.
Merger & Acquisition Services served as the financial adviser, while Eversheds Sutherland LLP served as the legal adviser to Mutual of America for the acquisition.
Anticipated to conclude during the third quarter of this year, the deal awaits regulatory nod.
Mutual of America Financial Group executive vice-president and chief actuary Simpa Baiye said: This transaction will enhance our financial and distribution capacities to provide guaranteed income solutions and other products to individuals outside the state of New York.
Propel Advisory Group acted as the financial adviser while Winstead PC was the legal adviser to The Jarvis Family Limited Partnership.
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