While there's been a flurry of activity on the excessive-fee–litigation front, Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs last week won its big class-action excessive-fee suit, which was brought on behalf of 17,000 participants in the company's $7.5 billion 401(k) plan.

The suit, brought by participant Leonid Falberg, alleged that by investing in its own proprietary mutual funds, Goldman and its in-house fiduciaries breached their duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by "only reluctantly and belatedly" removing underperforming Goldman investment funds as options in 2017, failing to consider lower-cost institutional investment vehicles, and failing to claim "free rebates" on behalf of the plan that allegedly were available to other similarly situated retirement plans which invested in the Goldman funds.

Falberg also said that Goldman funds were not broadly recommended by Goldman's outside investment adviser, the funds were higher-cost than other options, the funds consistently underperformed their benchmarks, and finally the plan did not have an investment policy statement.