Citigroup, Genworth Face Lawsuits Over BlackRock TDFs in Their 401(k)s

Citigroup and Genworth Financial are among at least six firms that are facing class-action lawsuits filed since Friday over “underperforming” target date funds from BlackRock.

The lawsuit against Citigroup, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, was brought by Juliette Motz and Vivek Shah as participants in the Citi Retirement Savings Plan on behalf of similarly situated participants and beneficiaries in the LifePath Index Funds, a suite of 10 TDFs.

The lawsuit against Genworth was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Virginia Eastern District against Genworth Financial and administrators of the company’s 401(k) plan. The law suit, brought by Tycko & Zavareei and Miller Shah LLP, involves underperforming BlackRock LifePath Index Funds.

Other targets of recent lawsuits involving the BlackRock target date funds include Cisco Systems, Capital One, Booz Allen Hamilton and Stanley Black & Decker.

Citi Suit Details

The Citi plan lineup has, since at least Dec. 31, 2009, offered the BlackRock LifePath Index Funds, among other investments.

The BlackRock TDFs “are significantly worse performing than many of the mutual fund alternatives,” according to the suit.

As of Dec. 31 2020, the plan had 109,634 participants with account balances and assets totaling approximately $17.91 billion, placing it in the top 0.1% of all defined contribution plans by plan size, the suit states.