Insurer’s Transfer of 401(k) Assets Via Reinsurance Transaction Not Improper, Ill. Federal Judge Rules

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge has awarded Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. summary judgment on claims that it breached a contract by transferring the assets of a 401(k) fund to a third party without notifying the company and its employees, finding nothing in the contract barred MetLife from doing so.

On July 5, Judge Manish Shah of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found Midco International Inc. failed to show how the reinsurance transaction through which the assets were transferred deviated from the general practices of the 401(k) administration industry.

Midco International Inc. Employees Profit Sharing …