Supreme Court Signals 9th Circuit Win for Intel in Retirement Fund Case
Updated
Updated · SCOTUSblog · Oct 7
Supreme Court Signals 9th Circuit Win for Intel in Retirement Fund Case
3 articles · Updated · SCOTUSblog · Oct 7
Summary
Several justices signaled Intel’s retirement-fund fiduciaries are likely to prevail, indicating the Supreme Court may affirm the 9th Circuit in Anderson v. Intel.
The argument centered on whether ERISA underperformance claims need a meaningful benchmark, with justices repeatedly saying employees cannot compare “apples and oranges” across different investment strategies.
Intel’s challengers attacked heavy use of hedge funds and private equity, but the bench focused on the complaint’s failure to identify comparable funds using similar strategies that performed better.
The U.S. government backed Intel’s fiduciaries, and by the later stages of argument the justices were asking how to write an affirmance rather than whether one was warranted.
A ruling for Intel could make it harder to bring federal fiduciary-duty suits over retirement-plan investments without side-by-side evidence from similar funds.