Davis & Harman ERISA Litigation Settlement Survey Cited in Media
- Published Date: February 12, 2026
Data compiled by Davis & Harman Partners Kent Mason and Adam McMahon, and Senior Legislative Coordinator, Taylor Howard, was recently cited in publications including RealClearMarkets and Planadviser.com, noting the disparity between plaintiffs’ attorney fees and participant recoveries in ERISA excessive fee and investment underperformance cases.
In late January 2026, RealClearMarkets published a story titled, “Excessive Litigation Is Hurting the Retirement Plans of Americans,” where the author detailed how, under current law, plaintiffs can bring sweeping lawsuits against retirement plans based on claims with no merit. If weak claims are allowed to survive the initial pleadings stage, the author notes that plan sponsors are forced into expensive legal discovery pressuring companies to settle suits to avoid expense and disruption.
Among the highlighted research, Davis & Harman’s 2025 Litigation Settlement Survey was cited, finding that in the 27 settlements observed, the median per-participant award was just $67.79 compared to an average plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fee of $1.59 million in these ERISA cases.
A link to the full RealClearMarkets article can be found here.
On February 5, 2026, Planadviser.com featured the Davis & Harman analysis in an article titled “ERISA Settlements Provided $68 per Plaintiff in 2025.” The article states that attorneys’ fees consumed an average of 33% of each settlement, and in some cases delivered single-digit dollar recoveries to participants.
Mason is quoted in the article stating, “[t]he participants are generally not winning any material amounts,” and “[t]hey’re not being awarded anything that adds meaningfully to retirement security, but the litigation costs and attorneys’ fees are very real – and they come out of compensation budgets.”
Mason continued: “[m]any plan sponsors are no longer asking what’s best for participants. . . [t]hey’re asking, ‘how do we avoid getting sued?’ and that’s a lose-lose for retirement savings.”
A link to the full Planadviser.com article can be found here.
