Services
Practice Areas
Retirement Plan Design and Compliance
We represent employers and plan sponsors in the design, implementation, amendment, administration and maintenance of all types of retirement plans including 401(k) plans, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), 403(b) plans, 457 plans, profit sharing plans, defined benefit pension plans (including “cash balance” plans), and nonqualified deferred compensation plans and arrangements (SERPs, Rabbi trusts, split-dollar arrangements, etc.). We work with human resource personnel and outside consultants such as accountants, actuaries, third-party administrators and investment advisors in this process.
We advise plan sponsors with respect to the identification and correction of operational and plan document errors through the correction programs administered by the Internal Revenue Service (including voluntary correction with Service approval (VCP), self correction (SCP) and correction on audit (Audit CAP) under the Employee Plans Correction Resolution System (EPCRS)) and by the Department of Labor (including the voluntary fiduciary compliance program (VFCP) and the delinquent filer voluntary compliance program (DFVCP)).
Health and Welfare Benefit Plans
We represent employers, plan sponsors and administrators in the design, implementation, amendment, administration and maintenance of all types of health and other welfare plans including long and short-term disability plans, cafeteria plans (including health care reimbursement plans and dependent care flexible spending accounts), employee stock purchase plans, wellness plans, high deductible health plans, self-insured and insured health and other welfare plans and trusts, voluntary employee beneficiary associations (VEBAs), association health plans, life insurance plans, severance pay plans, health spending accounts, health reimbursement accounts, tuition assistance plans and adoption assistance plans.
We advise plan sponsors with regard to compliance with state and federal laws and regulations governing such welfare benefit plans including COBRA, HIPAA, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, GINA, FMLA, ADA and health care reform legislation. We also counsel plan sponsors and administrators with regard to multiple employer plan issues, claims processing and claims litigation.
Downsizing and Benefits in Mergers and Acquisitions
We advise employers with regard to the employee benefit implications of reductions-in-force and downsizing and the treatment of employee benefits in the context of business transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, including plan terminations, merging and freezing plans and integrating and restructuring benefit plans and programs to fit new business structures.
Fiduciary Responsibility
We advise employee benefit plan sponsors and other fiduciaries with respect to compliance with their often complex fiduciary duties, including the prohibited transaction rules under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.
This includes advice in interpreting fiduciary rules relating to the payment of plan expenses from plan assets, minimizing the risk of fiduciary liability in the selection and monitoring of investment options and administering participant investment directions for 401(k) plans, assuring that employee deferrals are contributed on a timely basis to 401(k) plans, analyzing investment of plan assets and transactions to assure compliance with prohibited transaction rules, counseling plan sponsors regarding issues related to the investment of plan assets in employer stock, reviewing investment management agreements and generating and maintaining effective investment policies and guidelines to guide asset management in a volatile market place, advising and defending plan sponsors and other fiduciaries in DOL audits, compliance with fiduciary duties in analyzing fees paid from plan assets and ensuring that fiduciaries have the proper processes in place to be able to prove that they have followed prudent procedures.
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Executive Compensation
We advise employers in the design and implementation of all types of short-term and long-term executive compensation plans, stock option plans and other types of equity-based compensation and phantom stock plans including executive employment agreements and compliance with Code Section 409A (other than securities law issues). This includes advice regarding incentive programs, bonus plans, deferred compensation and supplemental retirement plans, life insurance arrangements, golden parachute payments and change-in-control agreements.
ERISA and Employee Benefits Litigation
We defend plans, plan sponsors and administrators with respect to the denial of benefit claims at both the trial and appellate level. We also defend other ERISA claims including those involving spousal and beneficiary rights, claims of breach of fiduciary duty, multiemployer plan withdrawal liability, collective bargaining disputes involving employee benefits and Department of Labor enforcement actions. We represent welfare plans seeking to enforce subrogation rights over third party payments.
