After His Retirement Funds Disappeared, a Minister Fought Back Against the Church

AARP Foundation joined a class action lawsuit to restore the lost retirement funds of nearly 5,000 employees of AME Church

Miriam Cross,

AARP

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Published February 11, 2026

Rev. Cedric Alexander at Allen Pond Park in Bowie, Maryland.

Jared Soares

Reverend Cedric Alexander spent decades as a clergyman in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. As he ascended the ranks, he always assumed his retirement funds were safe.

“I worked all these years, put in all these hours, served the Lord, served the church,” he says. “I’m ready for my retirement.”

When Alexander, now 68, left his position as presiding elder overseeing 13 churches in the San Francisco Bay area and retired in 2020, he waited a year before requesting funds from his retirement plan. Alexander was stunned to learn the church had frozen his account. His discovery coincided with an audit that unraveled an embezzlement scheme and other mismanagement that slashed the value of each employee’s retirement account by 70 percent.

Altogether, nearly $90 million of people’s contributions were gone.

“My Holy Spirit said: Go find some legal representation,” Alexander says.

Jared Soares

In March 2022, law firm Kantor & Kantor filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where Alexander lived at the time, alleging that the AME Church violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and breached fiduciary duties for nearly 5,000 active and retired church employees. This federal law, known as ERISA, governs most retirement and health plans in the private industry. Kantor & Kantor asked AARP Foundation to team up because of its success representing clients in another case involving a church-run retirement plan. Attorneys from AARP Foundation joined the suit as co-counsel a month later.

Six similar lawsuits filed on behalf of 10 named plaintiffs were later consolidated into one lawsuit against the AME Church and other defendants.

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In August 2024, the plaintiffs settled their claim against the church for $20 million. In March 2025, the plaintiffs and the AME Church settled their claims against Newport Group, Inc., the church’s third-party administrator, for $40 million. These funds have now been distributed to the employees’ retirement accounts. Litigation against additional defendants is ongoing. Julie Nepveu, a senior attorney at AARP Foundation who corepresents Alexander and the other plaintiffs, expects that case to go to trial in April.

“I’m grateful that AARP Foundation joined our fight,” Alexander says. “Everyone knows AARP fights to protect older Americans’ retirement security.”

Throwing his plan off course

Employees of the AME Church, the oldest and one of the largest U.S. Protestant denominations and historically Black churches, were told that the church would deposit 12 percent of their salaries each year in their retirement accounts. Employees were encouraged to contribute additional amounts on top of that.

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In reality, the church was not always making contributions as promised or enrolling all eligible clergy. Leaders of the church’s retirement department were funneling money from the plan to feed their own investments and working to keep their tactics hidden. Retirement contributions were not invested in a conservative annuity, as participants were told, but in a risky venture capital company and bogus real estate deal.

Plan participants were also assured that their funds were protected under ERISA. But the church never took the steps to ensure the plan was covered by ERISA, which would have made it harder to hide the misuse of funds.

Although the court in the AME Church case granted final approval to the two settlements totaling $60 million in August, and the money has been added to church employees’ retirement accounts, recovering from the emotional damage is a different story. The ordeal threw Alexander’s plan for his later years off course.

Alexander had relocated from California to Maryland after he retired to care for his 95-year-old mother and operate a certified financial planning business. He borrowed money to renovate and furnish his new house because he trusted his retirement withdrawals would cover the balance. Alexander’s inability to repay his loans ruined his credit, which damaged his professional reputation and caused more than half of his financial planning clients to drop him as an adviser. Alexander’s health suffered as well.

Where AARP Foundation comes in

AARP Foundation files and supports lawsuits that combat poverty among older adults.

“It’s important to protect the retirement funds of older people,” Nepveu says. “They worked their whole life to save up enough money to pay for their living expenses once they stop working. They count on that money.”

Since the suit was filed, the organization has largely transitioned to a new administrator and platform to manage its retirement plan, and church officials are filing the right documents to ensure funds are covered by ERISA. “There’s a lot more transparency,” Nepveu says. Going forward, there will be the kinds of checks and balances that participants expected all along.

In addition to AARP Foundation, the law firms representing the plaintiffs include Lee Segui, Kantor & Kantor, Leiff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, Osborne & Francis, Stranch Jennings & Garvey, Wright & Schulte and Blue, LLP.

Plaintiffs sued 23 defendants, including Dr. Jerome Harris (the former executive director of the AME Church Department of Retirement Services); his wife, Sandra Harris; his estate; Trinity Financial Consultants LLC, an entity Harris created to “manage” the plan; retirement plan broker Robert Eaton and several companies owned or controlled by Harris or Eaton, including Day and Night Solar, Financial Freedom Funds LLC and Financial Freedom Group, Inc. The AME Church defendants include the church, the Department of Retirement Services, the Council of Bishops, several individual bishops, and the church General Board.

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