Current and former participants in the TE Connectivity Retirement Savings and Investment Plan since October 30, 2020 may be covered by a proposed ERISA class action alleging the plan’s fiduciaries let participants pay excessive recordkeeping fees and used forfeited matching money to cut TE Connectivity’s own contributions. No class has been certified and there is nothing to file yet.
Allegations Only · No Settlement Yet
This article describes a class action complaint. The statements below are unproven allegations. TE Connectivity Corporation and the plan’s committees have not been found liable, there is no certified class, and nothing to claim at this time. This page is informational and is not legal advice.
What Is This About?
A proposed class action filed on October 30, 2026 alleges that the people running TE Connectivity’s 401(k) plan breached their duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The case, Silva v. TE Connectivity Corporation, No. 2:26-cv-08320, is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and is assigned to Judge Juan Ramon Sanchez. The defendants are TE Connectivity Corporation, which is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, the plan’s Retirement Administrative Committee and Investment Committee, and unnamed committee members.The plaintiff, a plan participant since 2013, makes two main claims. The first is that the plan paid its recordkeepers far more per participant than similar large plans. The second is that the plan’s fiduciaries used forfeited matching contributions mostly to reduce what TE Connectivity owed the plan, while participants kept paying plan expenses out of their own accounts. TE Connectivity has not yet responded in court.
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The Recordkeeping Fee Claim
The complaint says the plan used Northwest Plan Services as its recordkeeper until July 1, 2021, and Empower after that. Based on the plan’s annual Form 5500 filings, it says participants paid an average of about $71 per person per year for recordkeeping and administration from 2020 through 2025, peaking at $95 in 2021, the year the plan switched recordkeepers.The complaint compares the plan with six other large plans, including the Bechtel Trust & Thrift Plan, the PG&E Corporation Retirement Savings Plan and a FedEx Office plan, which it says paid an average of about $27 per participant for the same core services. It points out that Empower charged the Bechtel plan $22 to $26 per participant from 2022 through 2025 while the TE Connectivity plan paid $61 to $73. It alleges the committees did not benchmark the fees or put the recordkeeping contract out for bid, and estimates the excess fees cost participants about $4.5 million including lost investment growth.
The Forfeiture Claim
Under the plan, employees vest in TE Connectivity’s basic matching contribution only after three years of service. When someone leaves earlier, the unvested match is forfeited but stays in the plan. The plan document lets the fiduciaries use forfeitures either to reduce future company contributions or to pay reasonable plan expenses.According to the complaint, the plan generated about $12.66 million in forfeitures from 2020 through 2025. It says about $11.04 million, roughly 87%, went to reduce TE Connectivity’s matching contributions, and about $1.62 million went to plan expenses, with none used for expenses in 2020, 2022 or 2023. Over the same years, it says participants paid about $9.67 million in plan expenses from their accounts, and that forfeitures exceeded total plan expenses in four of the six years. The complaint argues that a loyal and prudent fiduciary would have used the forfeitures to pay expenses first, and estimates the plan’s losses from the forfeiture decisions at more than $7.47 million before lost earnings.
The complaint says it does not claim ERISA always bars using forfeitures to offset company contributions; it argues that the fiduciaries here had a choice and did not use a prudent, participant-focused process to make it.
The Six Counts
- Count I: breach of the duty of prudence over recordkeeping fees, against the committees.
- Count II: prohibited transactions with the recordkeepers as parties in interest, against all defendants.
- Counts III and IV: breach of the duties of loyalty and prudence in how forfeitures were used, against all defendants.
- Count V: violation of ERISA’s rule that plan assets may never benefit the employer, against all defendants.
- Count VI: failure to monitor the committees, against TE Connectivity.
Who Could Be Covered?
The proposed class is all current and former participants in and beneficiaries of the TE Connectivity Retirement Savings and Investment Plan from October 30, 2020 through judgment, excluding the defendants. In ERISA cases brought on behalf of a plan, any money recovered is paid to the plan and then allocated among participants’ accounts.What Happens Next?
TE Connectivity and the committees will have a chance to respond to the complaint, which in ERISA fee and forfeiture cases often means a motion to dismiss. The plaintiff, represented by Milberg, PLLC, would later have to ask the court to certify the class. If the case settles or the plaintiff wins, plan participants would be notified, and OpenClassActions.com will cover it.Questions
Who would be covered by the TE Connectivity 401(k) lawsuit?
The complaint proposes a class of all current and former participants in and beneficiaries of the TE Connectivity Retirement Savings and Investment Plan from October 30, 2020 through judgment, other than the defendants. No class has been certified.
What are 401(k) plan forfeitures?
When an employee leaves before vesting in the employer’s matching contributions, the unvested money is forfeited but stays in the plan. The TE Connectivity plan lets its fiduciaries use forfeitures either to reduce future company contributions or to pay plan expenses. The lawsuit alleges they chose the first option for about 87% of the forfeitures from 2020 through 2025.
Is there a TE Connectivity 401(k) settlement or claim form?
No. The lawsuit was filed on October 30, 2026. There is no settlement, certified class or claim form. In ERISA cases like this one, any recovery is paid to the plan and allocated to participants’ accounts.
Sources
• Class action complaint, Silva v. TE Connectivity Corporation, No. 2:26-cv-08320 (E.D. Pa., filed October 30, 2026)• Docket, Silva v. TE Connectivity Corporation, via CourtListener
