Equitable Affiliate PlanMember Services Signs Agreement with Fringe Benefit Consortium in San Diego

The agreement states it should not be subject to California Public Records Act Requests

The Fringe Benefit Consortium of San Diego has entered into an Agreement with a company partially owned by Equitable, PlanMember Services. Of the many provisions in the agreement that caught my eye, the following was the most concerning:

“Although the parties shall have the right to acknowledge the existence of this Agreement, they shall not disclose the terms of this Agreement to any other party, except that: a) either party may disclose the terms of this Agreement to its lawyers, accountants, board members, or consultants, who are bound by an appropriate duty of confidentiality; and b) Either party may disclose the terms of this Agreement as required by law, but only after first giving the other party the opportunity to intervene and oppose the disclosure. PlanMember asserts this Agreement should not be subject to the California Public Records Act (Cal. Gov. Code §§ 6250, et. seq.) as the information herein contains certain trade secrets, commercial or financial information or certain economic development negotiations not generally known to the public and the public interest served by not making the record public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record.” (emphasis added)

Here is a link to the agreement, I received it via a California Public Records Act request. Either the County didn’t read this provision or believed it was not enforceable, I do not know which.

According to PlanMember’s RegBI Disclosure document Equitable has an ownership stake:

“PlanMember Securities Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of PlanMemberFinancial Corporation (“PFC”). More than 25% of a voting class of securities of PFC is owned by a subsidiary of Equitable Holding, Inc. (“Equitable”). Equitable is the issuer of various mutual funds and various annuities products available for purchase through PSEC. While our product offerings are not limited to Equitable products, this ownership stake gives us an incentive to sell you or recommend you hold investments Equitable products.”