Trustee Subject of Department of Labor Orphaned Pension Plan Lawsuit

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Atlanta, Georgia - The U.S. Department of Labor is seeking to help more than 160 people covered by the orphaned 401(k) plan of a Georgia company by suing the plan’s administrator, whose alleged inaction has stranded its assets for two and a half years.

The Labor Department is asking the federal court in Tampa to name an independent fiduciary to manage and terminate the plan of AEGIS Consumer Funding Group, Inc., formerly of Marietta, Georgia, and distribute its assets to its participants.

The suit filed December 31, alleges that since the company named Nancy Domanico of Clearwater, Florida as the plan administrator in June 1999 and as its trustee in January 2000, she has neither provided instructions concerning the details of the plan’s termination nor responded to the third party administrator’s repeated requests for instructions.

The plan’s 163 participants have been unable to receive distributions from their individual accounts. The plan has approximately $590,887.41 in assets yet to be distributed as a result of the company’s intended termination of the plan on June 30, 1999.

Plans are considered by the department to become orphan plans when they are abandoned by all plan fiduciaries designated to manage and operate the plans and their assets. As a result, participants and beneficiaries are unable to receive pension distributions and to make inquiries about their benefits.

The investigation was conducted by the Atlanta Regional Office of the department’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration into alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

(Chao v. Nancy Domanico
Civil Action No. 8:01 CV 02502)

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.