$711 million remains in the commission settlement pool as payout timing stays unclear

Article Summary

It has been three years since a Missouri jury found the real estate industry liable for artificially inflating agent commissions, and nearly two years since the National Association of Realtors’ commission lawsuit settlement won final court approval. Even so, there is still no clear timeline for when eligible class members will receive money from the settlement fund, or how much they will get.

Court filings submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri show that the settlement fund held more than $711 million as of late September 2026. Over the first nine months of the year, the accounts generated more than $17 million in interest, while about $5.8 million was moved out. The filings do not say why those transfers were made or whether any settlement payments have gone to class members.

The funds are now being held by Morgan Stanley after being moved from Huntington Bank last October at the direction of class counsel.

JND Legal Administration, which oversees the settlement, says it has received and processed more than 2.7 million claim forms. The administrator also says it carried out six notification campaigns that included more than 138 million emails and 44 million postcards, with postage costs exceeding $18 million. JND is also undergoing a court-ordered audit.

As of mid-2025, JND had billed nearly $33 million to the settlement fund for administrative services. By late October, it said an outstanding invoice of $494,294 remained unpaid. The company also billed nearly $156,000 for work performed between July and September 2026.

Appellate courts have repeatedly rejected challenges to the settlement’s final approval in recent months, leaving those objectors with the option of taking their appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is not known whether any of them plan to do so, and that uncertainty continues to cloud when eligible home seller class members may finally see payouts.