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September 7, 2025 – WASHINGTON ─ AARP Foundation attorneys have joined a class action lawsuit as co-counsel on behalf of thousands of older adults enrolled in retirement plans offered by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA). The suit, filed by the law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, alleges that TIAA violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by self-dealing and mismanaging the retirement funds of over 28,000 participants in TIAA’s retirement plans.
According to the first amended complaint filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, TIAA is accused of investing employees’ retirement funds in a proprietary in-house fund that has consistently failed to meet its market benchmark by 186% since 2009. The suit alleges that TIAA breached its fiduciary duty by failing to remove their proprietary in-house fund from retirement plans, despite 16 years of poor investment performance and the availability of better-performing investment options.
Lead Plaintiff Bryan Byrne, a former TIAA employee and disabled veteran, first filed suit on May 20, 2025. The amended complaint adds additional claims and two new named plaintiffs, Charles David Sullivan and Sarah Johnson, both former TIAA employees. Plaintiffs bring this class action on behalf of participants in TIAA’s retirement plans. Defendants include TIAA, its Board of Trustees, and its Investment Advisory Review Committee, and are represented by attorneys at Goodwin Proctor.
The pleadings also allege that participants in these retirement plans were charged millions in higher investment fees than TIAA’s institutional clients, while TIAA gained millions in fee income. The suit seeks to recover the losses to participants’ retirement savings caused by the alleged ERISA breaches.
“When companies mismanage retirement assets and seek to maximize their own profit by charging exorbitant fees, they jeopardize the retirement security of older adults, particularly harming low-and moderate-income workers,” said William Alvarado Rivera, Senior Vice President of Litigation for AARP Foundation. “AARP Foundation is fighting to ensure TIAA participants get the retirement income they’ve earned — and the dignity they deserve.”
“Having AARP Foundation, which is part of the nation’s largest organization representing people over 50, join this litigation underscores the strength of our claims, which center on TIAA offering employees its proprietary in-house funds,” said Charles Field, ERISA Litigation Practice Group Co-Chair at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight. “Their involvement further validates our concern that TIAA is mismanaging their retirement plans at the expense of workers’ retirement security.”
The case is Byrne v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America et al., case number 1:25-cv-04228, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
About AARP Foundation
AARP Foundation works for and with older adults to expand economic opportunity through strategic grantmaking, volunteer-driven community service, and legal advocacy so that everyone can age with dignity and purpose. The Foundation is a charitable affiliate of AARP. To learn more, visit aarpfoundation.org or follow @AARPFoundation on social media.
About Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight is a public interest and civil rights law firm with offices in New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Nashville, and San Diego. The firm focuses on executive representation, wrongful termination, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, wage theft and overtime violations, whistleblower and qui tam, sexual violence, Title IX violations and victims’ rights, financial mismanagement and ERISA litigation, and Asian American litigation and finance matters. Our lawyers have recovered over $1 billion for our clients through many verdicts and settlements.
Source: AARP