Former H-E-B Supervisor Joined Suit and Became Financial Adviser After 401(k) Concerns

Eryn Schultz, a former H-E-B supervisor in Texas, joined a class-action lawsuit over the grocer’s 401(k) plan and has since left retail to work full time as a professional financial adviser. While at H-E-B she helped coworkers understand the company 401(k) and, after earning an M.B.A., raised concerns about the plan’s complexity, limited Spanish-language materials, and what she saw as high mutual fund fees.

The plan’s lineup is unusual, the suit says: it lacks target-date funds and includes actively managed funds with private equity and hedge fund exposures. Schultz said she took her concerns to plan decisionmakers, who did not agree, and later quit her store role. Schultz joined the lawsuit that began in 2019 despite friends’ and family’s cautions and has described doing so in part because she felt it could materially help lower-paid workers.

She pivoted to financial education, gave public talks including at Harvard, moved to Austin, earned a CFP designation and now charges $400 an hour as a fiduciary adviser. She has about 70 clients and says seminars make roughly 25 percent of her time and revenue. The case is moving slowly: Federal District Judge Fred Biery said in an email that complex civil cases can take years and noted local court workload pressures.

H-E-B provided a statement defending its benefits and said it would vigorously defend against what it called unfounded claims; the company did not agree to an interview.

Key Topics

Business, Eryn Schultz, Class-action Lawsuit, Fred Biery, Certified Financial Planner