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Federal retirement savings plan class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: A group of federal retirement savings plan participants have filed a class action lawsuit against Accenture Federal Services, Alight Solutions LLC, and the investment board members for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB).
- Why: The savings plan participants claim Accenture and Alight were not prepared to replace the FRTIB last year in conducting recordkeeping services for the Thrift Savings Plan.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Columbia federal court.
Accenture Federal Services and Alight Solutions LLC failed to adequately prepare to take over recordkeeping duties for federal retirement savings plans previously managed by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB), a new class action lawsuit alleges.
A group of seven federal retirement savings plan participants claim Accenture and Alight were not ready to take over the recordkeeping services for the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), a retirement savings and investment plan created for federal government workers and uniformed service members.
The savings plan participants argue the FRTIB and its executive director awarded a contract to Accenture and Alight to take over recordkeeping services for the TSP in 2020, with the transition beginning last year.
Accenture and Alight, however, failed to “adequately prepare” to take over the TSP and FRTIB, while the executive director failed to oversee the company’s work to “ensure that they fulfilled their legal obligations,” the retirement plan class action alleges.
“Thus, military personnel, veterans, and federal employees are stuck waiting for money they timely and properly requested, and that TSP promised to them, while bills and other expenses continue to pile up,” the retirement plan class action states.
Accenture, Alight violated Federal Employee Retirement Systems Act, says class action
The savings plan participants want to represent a nationwide class and California, Virginia, D.C, Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, and Tennessee subclasses of all persons or entities who are current or former TSP participants or beneficiaries who applied for TSP Loans, Hardship Withdrawals, Non-Hardship Active Withdrawals, Out of Service Withdrawals, and/or Death Benefits since June 1, 2022.
Accenture and Alight are accused of common law breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and negligence, and of violating the Federal Employee Retirement Systems Act of 1986 (FERSA). Accenture is also accused of breach of contract, while the FRTIB investment board members ar4e also accused of violating the FERSA.
Plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial and requesting declaratory and injunctive relief along with an award of appropriate damages, including punitive damages, for himself and all class members.
In other recent news regarding retirement plans, the University of Southern California agreed to pay $13.05 million earlier this year to resolve claims the school mismanaged retirement plans offered to its faculty and staff.
Are you a current or former Thrift Savings Plan participant? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by James P. Ulwick of Kramon & Graham, P.A., Joseph G. Sauder, Matthew D. Schelkopf, and Joseph B. Kenney of Sauder Schelkopf LLC, Elizabeth A. Fegan and Jonathan D. Lindenfeld of Fegan Scott LLC, and Bruce D. Greenberg of Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC.
The Federal retirement savings plan class action lawsuit is Bridges, et al. v. Accenture Federal Services, et al., Case No. 1:23-cv-01568, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
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11 thoughts onFederal retirement savings plan participants file lawsuit over transition to new recordkeeping vendor
I am a single mother of 3 children and I have Lupus. This is important because Lupus is a disease exacerbated by stress. This will make sense why it applies to this situation as you read.
In 2020 I began working for the Social Security Administration and gained a TSP account. In July of 2021 I left the agency and in August of 2021 I withdrew the balance of my funds from my TSP account and closed it.
In August of 2022 I began working for the Internal Revenue Service and started contributing to a new TSP account.
Unbeknownst to me, the TSP account I had with SSA was reactivated. So, when I thought I was setting up access to a new account, I logged in and saw my old SSA TSP account.
In August of 2022 I began calling regarding not being able to access my account. I was told by several representatives that it would be fixed and to give them 48 hours. I allowed more than 48 hours to pass and still no change to my account.
After the first contact, I would begin calling every few weeks to fix the issue so that I could view my account.
During the year of me calling I spoke to 4 or more supervisors as well as a dozen customer service reps. I was repeatedly told that my case was being escalated at a high priority and to allow 2 days to see an update.
On one of my calls to TSP when speaking to a supervisor, he located my separation and the withdrawal from 2021 and even stated that it was at the fault of TSP that my account it still showing active. He also gave the 48 hour time frame to correct the issue.
I patiently waited every single time and allowed well over 2 days for an update to be seen. Still nothing.
I contacted SSA when told to and SSA advised they’ve sent the required information to show a separated status, but my TSP account still did not change.
I am and have been in a place where I need to be able to access my funds for an emergency to keep my housing. Working for the government doesn’t leave any options to request funds for assistance. Being that this is the case, I am attempting to access my funds through TSP.
I have waited and been patient and done everything asked and I just keep being told the same things repeatedly with no change.
I’ve once again contacted SSA to request that they send the code TSP requires to show separation.
Insanity defined is; doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
This year of contacting TSP has done just that. I am at the end of my rope and need to access my funds. It is honestly is as if TSP is holding mine and my children’s future in their hands. My disease is flaring and I have no other recourse at this time.
The TSP role out was totally botched. My deceased husbands account had no beneficiary (new roll out issue). Spent almost a year sending paperwork back and forth never recieve any update. And after months of work they decided that this account would go to the ex spouse. I had been married for 10 years to him. In 2020 my husband started back with the government and pasted away in October of that year . I believe this account was for this term . I have requested a review but of course have heard nothing …
I’ve had issues with the system. I have to keep redoing my log-in. I waited on a return phone call. I never got my problem solved. I never had this much problems before. I’m a retiree.
I’ve been trying for weeks to do a Hardship Withdrawal on the website, and the system gets stuck in the process with a message that says
“The information that usually displays here is currently unavailable.”
The new TSP system sucks. Period. Historical data prior to last year appears to be unavailable. The old system allowed a user to pull up any day from decades past. I complained about it and was blown off.
I retired from federal service as a U.S. Probation Officer in 2012. The changes made in the TSP which were horrendous caused me much strife. After one year I reluctantly close my account and transferred my money out to an IRA with Charles Schwab.
I’m still waiting for a full accounting for CY2022 in my TSP End of Year statement.
I’ve been attempting to roll external 401(k) funds into the TSP since early May 2023 and I’ve only recently reached someone who doesn’t read scripts to Fed employees who call and appears to understand the short falls of the assumption of TSP operations by the Newark, NJ entity.
I’m still waiting for a full accounting for CY2022 in my TSP End of Year statement.
There are very few things that I should have to call in to get done. Seems I have to call EVERY TIME I need to do something. I have on NUMEROUS occasions, called because on the website, it indicates that I am only recieving my statements, etc, electronically, however, every month, it arrives in my mailbox. Can’t get it to stop.
Phone people are not trained well at all. Once, I was told that in order to change the amount of my monthly withdrawal, I had to stop my monthly, wait til I get an email confirming that change had been made, call back, and get it restarted. The email never came, and when I called, I was told that was NOT how it was supposed to work. Fortunately, I had my tax refund to tide me over til the payment started back up.
They messed up a transfer ,but after 10 months, and a claim filed with the government accountability office, paid me back. No interest.