In the world of employee benefits, employers and plan sponsors are constantly faced with the ever-changing complex legal and legislative changes that affect their ability to design and maintain compensation and benefits programs for their employees.
The attorneys in the Employee Benefits Group focus on these challenges on behalf of our clients while helping them navigate through these changes effectively and efficiently.
We focus on keeping our clients current on the legal changes affecting benefit plans and compensation issues as well as counseling our clients on how these changes apply to their specific employee benefit and compensation situations. We focus not only on specific laws dealing with compensation and employee benefit programs, such as ERISA, but we also examine other areas of the law, such as tax, corporate, securities, and employment law, that are key to developing comprehensive solutions.
Our lawyers work closely with management, business owners, accountants, actuaries, financial advisers, and other professional consultants to achieve a comprehensive, effective, and efficient result for compensation and employee benefits issues for all types of entities and employers, ranging from large to small, including governmental employers, tax-exempt employers, and private employers. We provide representation to myriad benefit plans, including retirement plans, health plans, deferred compensation plans, and other post-employment benefit plans and trusts (OPEB).
Legal needs addressed by the practice area:
- Qualified and non-qualified employee benefits plans, including the formation, operation and qualification of pension and welfare benefit plans
- Employee benefit plan compliance
- Plan design, drafting and implementation
- Advice in plan operation and administration
- Negotiations with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service with respect to employee benefit issues
- Deferred and executive compensation plans (including 409A compliance)
- Governmental plans, including other post employment benefit plans (OPEB)
- Tax-exempt entities, including tax-exempt employers
- Welfare benefit plans (including HIPAA compliance)
- Cafeteria plans (or Section 125 plans)
- Fiduciary responsibilities and duties associated with employee benefit plans
- Prohibited transactions
