On June 1, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Thole v. U.S. Bank N.A. that participants of defined benefit plans lack standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution to sue fiduciaries for alleged failures to satisfy their duties under ERISA, if the participants cannot establish that they have experienced individual financial loss or the imminent risk thereof. The Court held in a 5-4 opinion that the plaintiffs did not have a stake sufficient to bring a lawsuit because they had received all of their vested monthly pension benefits to date and had not shown how the alleged mismanagement of the pension plan substantially increased the risk that the plan would be unable to pay their future entitlements. As a practical matter, this should make it harder for plan participants to bring suits of this nature in the future
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