Laws and regulations covering employee benefits can change and new rulings can make standard practice a legal liability. Our team of attorneys monitors changing regulations related to employee benefits and can help you address retirement plans, welfare plans, fiduciary liability, and taxation of employee benefits.
We have extensive experience with retirement plans and welfare plans—including profit-sharing, 401(k), ESOPs, and IRS qualified defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution plans. We work with you and your vendors, service providers, accountants, actuaries, and financial professionals to provide safe, attractive retirement benefits for employees at the lowest administrative cost.
Our services include IRS and DOL compliance, plan drafting and amending, Determination Letter submissions, Pension Protection Act issues, administration issues, audits and IRS and DOL remedial procedures. Also, we assist with non-qualified plans offered for the employer’s workforce in general, including Section 457 plans, and special plans for executives.
Our attorneys have decades of experience representing Taft-Hartley multi-employer and governmental plans. We routinely handle complex issues such as withdrawal liability and Pension Protection Act compliance. We guide plans through DOL audits, IRS compliance and Determination Letter filings, and the unique issues facing governmental employers. We work closely with our labor attorneys when collective bargaining issues intertwine with benefits matters.
We work with trustees of ERISA plans to guide them in accordance with the fiduciary standards imposed by federal law. Protecting individuals from liability in such a complex and changing area is an important part of insuring plans can attract and retain qualified individuals to successfully administer their plans for the benefit of plan participants.
Our team routinely helps employers with health and welfare benefit matters arising under ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, USERRA, and the ACA. We help with drafting and amending plans and IRS and DOL compliance. We review QDROs and QMCSOs and advise on VEBA and Cafeteria Plan issues. Our attorneys are always available when a client has a quick question related to a particular employee’s question.
Our executive compensation practice is focused on structuring non-qualified arrangements. We design and help our clients implement various packages such as phantom stock plans, non-qualified deferred compensation plans, “rabbi” trust arrangements, stock purchase and option agreements, and other incentive or bonus plans, to supplement or replace traditional vehicles such as 401(k) plans and ESOPs. We also work with lawyers in our Labor & Employment team to coordinate severance packages that implement special deferred compensation components.
Our attorneys defend employers, plans, insurers, and third-party administrators in class actions, breach of fiduciary duty actions, DOL investigations, and litigation related to health, welfare, and pension benefits. In addition to defending ERISA and employee benefits cases, we counsel employers and fiduciaries in anticipation of litigation about employee benefits issues.
The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice nor does it constitute an attorney-client relationship. The information provided may not be applicable in all situations and readers should speak with an attorney about their specific concerns. Some material on this site may be considered attorney advertising in some jurisdictions.
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