The Supreme Court announced on June 3, 2019, that it would hear an appeal by IBM, which is fighting a claim by participants in its 401(k) plan. The participants claim that the plan's fiduciaries violated their duty of prudence because they had insider information about the health of IBM's business but failed to either make a disclosure or to freeze investment in IBM stock. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit allowed the suit, filed in 2015 after IBM's stock dropped 7%, to proceed as a class-action suit.

Plaintiff success in such "stock-drop suits" has been rare since the Supreme Court created new standards for fiduciary prudence in its 2014 ruling in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer. IBM argues that the Second Circuit's decision defies the Dudenhoeffer standard and is at odds with rulings in the Fifth and Sixth Circuits.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear the case indicates that it wants to revisit either the standard or the way it has been interpreted by lower courts.