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The musicians pension lost big time on risky bets; then a Cheltenham-born saxophonist led a suit that won a $27 million settlement
Who pays when the people who oversee retirement plans bet on risky investments and end up losing big time?
Thursday’s settlement deal in a case brought by a onetime Philadelphia area saxophonist against a $2 billion musicians’ pension fund shows that the trustees who ratify advisers’ and outside managers’ investment picks can be held responsible for their mistakes.
Management and labor trustees who oversaw the American Federation of Musicians Pension Plan for 50,000 working and retired entertainers will have to pay the fund $26.85 million to settle a civil complaint that they gambled tens of millions away on poorly performing private equity and foreign investments. They did all that while avoiding U.S. stocks even as their value soared in the early and middle 2010s.
Who pays when the people who oversee retirement plans bet on risky investments and end up losing big time?
Thursday’s settlement deal in a case brought by a onetime Philadelphia area saxophonist against a $2 billion musicians’ pension fund shows that the trustees who ratify advisers’ and outside managers’ investment picks can be held responsible for their mistakes.
Management and labor trustees who oversaw the American Federation of Musicians Pension Plan for 50,000 working and retired entertainers will have to pay the fund $26.85 million to settle a civil complaint that they gambled tens of millions away on poorly performing private equity and foreign investments. They did all that while avoiding U.S. stocks even as their value soared in the early and middle 2010s.
