In the past year, there has been a surge of employer pension risk transfer (PRT) lawsuits, and now Seattle-based wood product manufacturer Weyerhaeuser Co. is being sued in a class-action lawsuit in federal court for transferring US$1.5 billion in plan assets to Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company, which is not a party to the litigation. The lawsuit alleges a breach of fiduciary duty, as well as conflicts of interest in the choice of provider.

The suit (Maneman et al. v. Weyerhaeuser Co. et al.) was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on December 12 by Schlichter Bogard on behalf of employees Gregory Maneman, Annette Williams, Cassandra Wright, James Hollins, and Pierre Donaby in regard to the transfer of pension obligations to Athene, which the suit described as “a highly risky private-equity–controlled insurance company with a complex and opaque structure.”