Creative Planning and Transamerica are co-defendants in a class action lawsuit accusing plan fiduciaries of ignoring their duties of prudence and loyalty in managing a hospital retirement plan. The complaint was filed in federal court in Florida by Tamara Goucher, an employee at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, and was transferred to Maryland last week.
Goucher claimed to have worked for the hospital system for about 30 years. According to the complaint, employees could access two defined contribution retirement plans, including a 403(b) and 401(a) plan. Transamerica Retirement Solutions provided recordkeeping and administrative services, while Creative Planning served as an additional advisor to the 403(b) option. Both were named as co-fiduciaries in the complaint.
Between 2015 and 2025, the fiduciaries steered many of the plans' assets into the American Century One Choice Target Date Funds, Goucher claimed. The funds followed a glide path that was unusually flat and bond-heavy until the target year, which meant participants' exposure to equities was below typical plans, according to the suit.
While the defendants admitted this was a major detractor to growth, Goucher claims they failed to replace the American Century TDFs until long after making this admission. According to Goucher, they did not provide any other options until September 2025. The fiduciaries doubled down on the unconventional choice for over a decade before finally switching to a BlackRock TDF, one of the most popular options in the space, she said.
At the start of the class period, the American Century TDF's 10-year returns lagged the five most popular TDF options at T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, Fidelity, American Funds and BlackRock, according to the suit. Goucher stated that by 2020 and 2021, any reasonable fiduciary should have realized American Century underperformed compared to competitors. She also cited Morningstar reports from the time that allegedly gave the American Century options sub-par ratings compared to peers.
The defendants selected the American Century TDFs as the 403(b) plan's qualified default investment alternative, which meant employees were automatically enrolled if they made no investment selection. This created a heightened duty for fiduciaries to choose a suitable TDF option to serve in that role, according to the complaint.
Goucher also claimed that through the period in question, All Children's affiliated investment committee, Transamerica and Creative Planning opted for more expensive share classes of funds, including from American Century, PIMCO, Janus Henderson and Invesco, when more affordable options were available. Goucher called the practice typically imprudent because it ignores the investment opportunity that is lost when participants pay more on the front end.
Fred Barstein, the CEO and founder of The Retirement Adviser and Plan Sponsor Universities, said it would be very surprising if the suit was successful. He claimed American Century could be argued to be performing as promised, but was just very conservative in a booming market. Creative Planning did not respond to a request for comment. Transamerica declined to comment, citing its policy of not speaking about pending litigation.
The Goucher complaint is one of several filed in recent months targeting fiduciaries who favored American Century TDFs. According to the National Association of Plan Advisers, recent complaints have targeted Ivanti, Sig Sauer, KE Dunn Construction, OneOncology and other employers after they opted for the American Century TDFs. The first such suit, Phillips v. Elanco, was filed last fall.
Creative Planning has bolstered its retirement assets and services in recent years. The firm acquired Lockton's $110 billion defined contribution practice in 2022. In 2025, Creative Planning acquired SageView Advisory Group, bringing in $250 billion and one of the industry's original retirement-plan-advisor aggregators. The deal created a combined firm with more than 550 advisors, 11,800 retirement plans and 80,000 private wealth clients. Shortly after the deal announcement, Creative Planning named SageView President Jon Upham to lead the combined retirement solutions division.