Printer-Friendly Version
Archived News Release Caution: Information may be out of date. Archived News Release Caution: Information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219-8921
The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against
John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company in Boston and its subsidiary,
Independence Investment Associates (IIA) charging them with violating federal
pension law.
IIA allegedly received more than $615,000 in investment
management fees from an employee benefit plan sponsored by John Hancock. The
department alleges that a firm cannot pay its subsidiary to manage pension
funds except for actual expenses involved. It claims the $615,000 were not
actual expenses and instead represent either profit, overhead or expenses IIA
would have incurred even without providing services to the plan.
John Hancock's pension plan covered 9,953 participants and
had more than $500 million in assets as of December 1993. Besides insurance,
John Hancock also provides investment services to benefit plans and other
clients nationwide.
John Hancock appointed IIA to manage a portion of the
pension plan's assets in March 1986. The lawsuit seeks to have John Hancock and
IIA reverse all prohibited transactions and restore any profits to the
plan.
The court action was a result of an investigation by the
Boston Regional Office of the Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare
Benefits Administration into alleged violations of the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act. The suit was filed yesterday in the federal district court
in Boston.
(Reich v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co.) Civil
Action #96-10608
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ This
information will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon
request. Voice phone call (202) 219-8921, TDD phone 1-800-326-2577.
Archived News Release Caution: Information may be out of date.
|