Kent Mason Featured in Plansponsor.com Article on Magistrate Judges Recommendations Regarding AT&T Pension Risk Transfer Suit
- Published Date: September 3, 2025
Davis & Harman Partner, Kent Mason, was featured in a Plansponsor.com article titled, “Magistrate Judge Recommends Dismissal of AT&T PRT Suit,” where he was quoted expressing concern that the magistrate’s findings that the plaintiffs had sufficient standing might be a significant negative outcome for plan sponsors fighting off future complaints.
The Plansponsor.com article details a magistrate judge’s recommendations to dismiss a consolidated pension risk transfer complaint filed against AT&T Inc., and State Street Global Advisors. The complaints allege that AT&T’s selection of Athene Annuity and Life. Co. as the insurer put AT&T retirees in danger and that State Street, AT&T’s independent fiduciary, stood to benefit from the transaction. The magistrate’s report stated that the plaintiffs should be found to have standing to bring the suit but recommended that the suit be dismissed for failure to plausibly allege an ERISA violation.
Kent Mason was quoted expressing concern that the magistrate’s findings that the plaintiffs had standing in the case might be a significant outcome for future complaints. Mason is quoted saying:
“The problem with this mixed result is that courts have been extremely lenient on the issue of whether plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged a fiduciary breach, so the magistrate’s reasoning on this point may not be used by other courts. . . [s]o, losing the standing issue here is problematic.”
A link to the full article can be found here.
