Lifetouch directors suit alleges mismanagement of ESOP

Bloomberg Law reports a March 1 class-action lawsuit alleges Lifetouch Inc. employees suffered “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages by investing their retirement plans in the company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). The suit alleges the company’s board did not do enough to protect workers’ retirement savings in the ESOP, as the value of the company’s stock declined more than $840 million between 2015 to 2018. The report said this represented an average loss of $22,000 in retirement savings for each of the ESOP plan’s 16,000 participants.

The case is filed as Vigeant v. Meek, D. Minn., No. 0:18-cv-00577, complaint 3/1/18.