In May the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Tibble v. Edison International, ruling that when a plaintiff brings a claim under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) for an alleged failure to monitor plan investments and remove imprudent ones, the limitation clock starts running at the time of the alleged monitoring failure. Despite the reactions of some commentators, this ruling does little to alter the obligations of sophisticated employers that engage in the routine monitoring the Court contemplated.

The specific dispute in Tibble involved a number of mutual funds offered as investment options under Edison’s 401(k) plan. A group of plan beneficiaries filed suit alleging that Edison had breached its fiduciary duty of prudence by offering retail-class mutual funds to its employees, when materially identical institutional-class funds—with lower fees—were available. ERISA includes a six-year outside time limit for claims of breach of fiduciary duty, and three of the mutual funds had been added to the plan more than six years prior to the filing of the lawsuit. The district court therefore concluded—and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed—that without a showing of changed circumstances constituting a new breach of duty within the limitations period, the plaintiffs’ claims regarding the three mutual funds were untimely.

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