Supreme Court Axes “Presumption of Prudence” in ESOP Stock-Drop Cases

On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that gives comfort to “stock-drop” plaintiffs and may cause shockwaves among employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciary committees. In Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer,1 the Court held that ESOP fiduciaries are not entitled to any “presumption of prudence” in lawsuits challenging their decision to invest plan assets in company stock. Instead, ESOP fiduciaries “are subject to the same duty of prudence that applies to ERISA fiduciaries in general, except that they need not diversify the fund’s assets.”