Published
September 6, 2026
MyMichigan Health 403(b) Savings Plan participants who used GoalMaker or directed any part of their account to the Guaranteed Income Fund from March 18, 2019 onward share a $1.9 million ERISA class action settlement, and they will be paid automatically from plan records with no claim form to file. Nobody can opt out; the fairness hearing is set for November 18, 2026, and former participants who want a rollover instead of a check must return a form by that same date.
Current Status
There is no claim form and no claim deadline. A class member's share is calculated from the plan's own records and paid automatically. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan has authorized notice and set a Fairness Hearing for November 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM before Judge David M. Lawson in Detroit; no final approval order has been entered, and no payment date has been announced. Two things make this settlement unusual. The class was certified for settlement purposes under Rule 23(b)(1), so no one can exclude themselves, and the settlement website and the mailed notice print different objection deadlines — October 28 and September 30, 2026 — which is covered in detail below.
Status
Pending — Automatic Payment
Notice issued · fairness hearing November 18, 2026
Key Deadline
October 28, 2026
Objection deadline on the settlement website · the mailed notice prints September 30, so object by the earlier date
Estimated Payout
Pro rata share of $1.9M
Scaled to your average balance in the plan's stable value option · roughly 18,000 class members · no per-person figure published
Proof Required
Automatic Payment
No claim form — current participants are credited inside the plan, everyone else is mailed a check unless they elect a rollover
What Changed Recently?
The parties executed the Settlement Agreement on April 27, 2026, and the court has since authorized notice to the class and set the November 18 hearing. That is what put the long-form notice in the mail, opened the official settlement website, and made the Rollover Form available to people who no longer have a plan account. Atticus is administering the settlement.One consequence of the timing is worth pinning down, because it decides who is in the class. The class period runs from March 18, 2019 through the date the court granted preliminary approval, and neither the notice nor the settlement website publishes that date. The class therefore reaches close to the present rather than stopping in 2023 where the complaint's data ended, but the exact cutoff is not stated in the notice documents.
MyMichigan Health and the MyMichigan Health Pension Governance and Administrative Committee deny all claims. The notice states that they assert they have always acted prudently and in the best interests of participants and beneficiaries, and that nothing in the settlement is an admission or concession of fault or liability. No court has found them liable.
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What Are the Allegations?
The lawsuit is narrow for an ERISA case. It is about one investment option: the Guaranteed Income Fund, a stable value contract issued to the plan by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, whose retirement business Empower acquired in 2022.A stable value option is not a mutual fund. It is a group annuity insurance contract sold only into retirement plans, and it guarantees principal while paying interest at a crediting rate the insurer sets. Because the crediting rate is the entire return, a rate set below what the market offers is invisible on a statement — the balance still goes up — but it compounds.
The complaint alleges that the plan fiduciaries never tested the stable value market and so never learned that the GIF was paying below-market rates. On the figures in the complaint, the GIF's crediting rate averaged 1.81% from 2019 through 2023, against a peer-group weighted average of 3.64% and 3.36% for TIAA's comparable general account product. The complaint alleges those figures put the plan roughly two standard deviations below its peers in each of those years, and that the shortfall cost the plan more than $8 million.
Scale is the reason the complaint says this was avoidable. The plan held $59 million in the GIF at the start of 2019 and $108 million at the end of 2023, out of $664 million in total plan assets, which the plaintiffs allege was more than enough to hire a stable value consultant and put the contract out for bid. Two counts are pleaded: one against the committee for failing to monitor the option, and one against MyMichigan Health for failing to monitor the committee it appoints.
These are allegations. The defendants deny them, the case settled before any ruling on the merits, and the settlement agreement is explicit that it is not an admission of wrongdoing.
Who Qualifies?
The settlement class is all plan participants who used GoalMaker or who chose to direct any part of their account to the GIF from March 18, 2019 through the date the court granted preliminary approval, along with their beneficiaries and alternate payees of record. Members of the MyMichigan Health Pension Governance and Administrative Committee are excluded.The GoalMaker half of that definition is the part most people will not expect. GoalMaker was Prudential's automated asset-allocation service, which placed a participant's contributions into a model portfolio instead of individual funds the participant picked. A participant who never chose the GIF by name can still be a class member through GoalMaker, which is why the notice puts the class at roughly 18,000 people while the complaint described a narrower group of GIF investors.
Current employment is not the test, and neither is a current account balance. Participation during the class period is. The plan was formerly the MidMichigan Health 403(b) Savings Plan, so service under the older name counts.
How Much Can You Get?
No per-person figure has been published, and none can be until the court fixes the deductions. What the settlement fixes is the formula.The gross fund is $1,900,000, held in a Qualified Settlement Fund. Deducted from it, subject to court approval, are attorneys' fees of no more than one-third of the fund, which the notice quantifies as $633,333.33 at the cap; class counsel's litigation costs; administrative expenses; and case contribution awards of up to $5,000 for each class representative. What remains is the Net Settlement Amount.
At the fee cap and with two class representatives at the $5,000 ceiling, about $1.26 million would remain before costs and administrative expenses come out. Spread across the roughly 18,000 class members the notice describes, that is an average in the neighborhood of $70. Both of those are OCA's arithmetic from the figures in the notice, not numbers the settlement publishes, and the real average will be lower because costs and expenses have not been subtracted.
An average is also the wrong way to picture the outcome, because the money is not split by head count. The Plan of Allocation gives each class member a share of the Net Settlement Amount based on their average balance in the plan's stable value investment option relative to every class member's average balance in that option. Someone who held a large GIF balance for the full period receives many times what someone with a brief or small balance does, and a class member whose average stable value balance was zero would compute to nothing under that formula. The notice does not address that case and publishes no minimum-payment floor; Article 5 of the settlement agreement is the governing text.
How Will You Be Paid?
The route depends on whether you still have an account in the plan when distributions are made.- Current Participants — class members with an account in the plan at the time distributions are made — have their allocation deposited directly into that individual account. Nothing is required of them.
- Everyone else is mailed a check by default. Again, nothing is required, and the notice is explicit that doing nothing results in a check.
- A class member who is not a Current Participant may instead elect a direct rollover to an individual retirement account or another eligible employer plan by submitting a Rollover Form postmarked on or before November 18, 2026. The form is in the Settlement Documents section of the official settlement website.
The notice states that payments made by check are subject to automatic withholding and reporting as required by law and the agreement, and that payments distributed by direct rollover are not subject to automatic withholding. It also states that if a submitted rollover cannot be completed — because the form arrived too late, the information was incomplete, or the receiving institution declined it — the administrator will attempt to mail a check instead, on the same terms as any other check. Questions about how a settlement payment is treated for your own purposes should go to the IRS or a qualified professional; OCA does not give tax advice.
One practical note for people no longer with MyMichigan Health: a check has to reach you. The notice directs class members to keep their mailing address current with the settlement administrator or class counsel, both reachable through the official settlement website.
What Proof or Claim Form Is Required?
None. There is no claim form in this settlement, so there is nothing to prove up and no identifier to enter. Shares are calculated by the settlement administrator from plan records, and the notice states that the administrator's determinations under the Plan of Allocation are final and binding.The Rollover Form is the only document any class member submits, it is optional, and it changes the delivery method rather than the amount. A class member who never returns one still gets paid.
What Are the Deadlines?
- Objection: file with the Clerk of the Court and serve on class counsel and defense counsel at least 21 calendar days before the fairness hearing. The settlement website gives October 28, 2026. The mailed long-form notice gives September 30, 2026. See the note below.
- Notice of intent to appear and speak at the hearing: the settlement website applies the same 21-day rule, which is October 28, 2026; the mailed notice prints October 30, 2026. Filing an objection is not by itself permission to speak — a separate notice to appear is required, and the objection requirements have to be met as well.
- Rollover Form: postmarked on or before November 18, 2026, and only for class members who are not Current Participants.
- Fairness Hearing: November 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM, Courtroom 767, Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, Detroit, Michigan. The notice says that if the hearing is rescheduled, or held by video or telephone, a notice will be posted on the settlement website — so confirm before traveling.
- Opt-out: there is none. The class was certified under Rule 23(b)(1) for settlement purposes, and the notice answers the exclusion question with a flat no.
The objection dates need care, because the two official documents disagree and one of them is wrong on its own terms. Both state the rule the same way: an objection must be filed and served at least 21 calendar days before the fairness hearing. Twenty-one days before November 18, 2026 is October 28, 2026, which is the date the settlement website prints and which is internally consistent. The mailed long-form notice prints September 30, 2026 in Item 11, a date that does not follow from its own 21-day rule and that sits alongside an earlier fee-application date of September 15 where the website says October 28. The pattern reads like a notice drafted against an earlier hearing date, but OCA has not located a court order confirming that. Until one is entered, the safe course for anyone who intends to object is to treat September 30, 2026 as the deadline: an objection filed by the earlier date is timely under either document.
None of this affects being paid. There is no claim deadline, and a class member who does nothing at all still receives their share.
What Are You Giving Up?
The release is the trade for a class that cannot opt out. On the effective date, all settlement class members and anyone claiming through them release the plan, the defendants and the other Released Parties from the Released Claims, which the notice describes as claims with respect to the plan that were asserted in the action or that could have been asserted against the defendants.In practice that means a class member cannot bring their own later suit over how the plan's stable value option was selected, monitored or priced during the class period. The notice is clear that its summary of the release is not the binding description; the governing text is Paragraph 1.40 of the Settlement Agreement, posted in the Settlement Documents section of the settlement website.
What Happens Next?
The next milestone is the Fairness Hearing on November 18, 2026, where the court will decide whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate and will rule on the requested attorneys' fees and costs, administrative expenses and case contribution awards. Class counsel's full fee application will be filed before the hearing and posted to the settlement website; the website gives October 28, 2026 as the filing date and the mailed notice gives September 15, 2026.Approval is not payment. The notice states that distribution is conditioned on final approval becoming final and no longer subject to appeal, that an appeal of a final approval order may take several years, and that if there are no appeals the distribution will likely occur within approximately four months of the final approval order. There will be no payments at all if the agreement is terminated.
OCA will update this page when the court rules, when a distribution schedule is announced, or if an order resolves the conflicting objection dates. Readers tracking this area may also want the Ricoh USA Retirement Savings Plan settlement, which raises the same stable value theory against a 401(k) plan, and the Providence Health 401(k) forfeiture settlement, another health system retirement plan case paying automatically.
Sources and Verification
- Official settlement website — My Michigan Settlement.com, including its Home, Important Dates, Settlement Documents and Frequently Asked Questions pages.
- Notice of Class Action Settlement in the MyMichigan Health 403(b) Savings Plan Litigation, authorized by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, embedded below.
- Class Action Settlement Agreement executed April 27, 2026, including its Article 5 Plan of Allocation and the Paragraph 1.40 release definition, posted in the Settlement Documents section of the settlement website.
- Class action complaint filed March 18, 2025 in Moffit, et al. v. MyMichigan Health, et al. (E.D. Mich.), ECF No. 1, the source of the crediting-rate, plan-asset and peer-group figures described above.
- Docket note for anyone searching PACER: the complaint was docketed as No. 2:25-cv-10761-TLL-PTM, and the settlement notice identifies the case as No. 1:25-cv-10761-DML-PTM before Judge David M. Lawson.
Questions
I never picked the Guaranteed Income Fund. Why am I in the class?
Because the class definition has two doors, and GoalMaker is the second one. The settlement class is every plan participant who used GoalMaker or who chose to direct any part of their account to the GIF from March 18, 2019 through the date the court granted preliminary approval. GoalMaker was Prudential's automated asset-allocation service, so a participant who never picked an individual fund can still be a class member through it. That is also why the notice puts the class at roughly 18,000 people when the underlying complaint described a narrower group of GIF investors.
Can a class member end up with nothing?
The Plan of Allocation divides the Net Settlement Amount pro rata by each class member's average balance in the plan's stable value investment option, measured against every class member's average balance in that option. A share calculated from an average stable value balance of zero would compute to nothing under that formula. The notice does not address that case directly, and it publishes no de minimis floor. Article 5 of the settlement agreement is the governing text, and it is posted in the Settlement Documents section of the official settlement website.
The notice and the settlement website give different objection deadlines. Which one applies?
Both documents state the same underlying rule: an objection must be filed and served at least 21 calendar days before the fairness hearing. Twenty-one days before the November 18, 2026 hearing is October 28, 2026, which is the date the settlement website prints. The mailed long-form notice prints September 30, 2026 in Item 11, an earlier date that does not match its own 21-day rule. OCA has not located a court order resolving the difference, so anyone who intends to object should treat September 30, 2026 as the operative deadline rather than rely on the later date.
What is a stable value fund, and why would its crediting rate matter?
A stable value option is a group annuity insurance contract sold only into retirement plans, not a mutual fund. It guarantees principal and pays interest at a crediting rate the insurer sets, so a participant's balance does not rise and fall with interest rates the way a bond fund does. The crediting rate is the whole return. The complaint alleges the GIF's crediting rate averaged 1.81% over 2019 through 2023 while comparable plans averaged 3.64%, and that the gap cost the plan more than $8 million. MyMichigan Health denies all of it and no court has ruled on the allegation.
Why is there no way to opt out?
The settlement class was certified for settlement purposes under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(1), and the notice answers the exclusion question with a flat no. That rule covers claims that belong to the retirement plan as a whole rather than to participants individually, where separate suits would risk inconsistent rulings about how the same plan should have been run. Every class member is bound by the release whether or not they receive money. Filing a written objection is the only avenue left.
Official Settlement Notice
For more class actions keep scrolling below.
Settlement Amount
$1,900,000
Qualified Settlement Fund · attorneys' fees capped at $633,333.33
Case Title
Moffit, et al. v. MyMichigan Health, et al.
Case Number
1:25-cv-10761-DML-PTM
Court
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
Final Approval Hearing
November 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Courtroom 767, Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, Detroit, Michigan
Administrator
Atticus
Official Website
My Michigan Settlement.com
