Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $79 million to settle a class-action lawsuit related to deferred compensation for former financial advisors of the banking company.
The class action covers more than 1,000 former advisers who said they were wrongly required to forfeit deferred compensation when they left Wells Fargo.
The lead plaintiff, Robert Berry, said he forfeited nearly $200,000 in deferred compensation when he resigned from Wells Fargo in 2014, according to the publication.
In an amended complaint filed in May 2017, Berry targeted a “forfeiture clause” in two deferred-compensation plans.
The complaint alleged that the plans constituted pension benefits under the Employees Retirement Income Security Act, and therefore unvested deferred compensation could not be forfeited.
The settlement remains subject to court approval.