Employee Benefits/Executive Compensation
Our Expertise
We advise plan sponsors across industries on qualified retirement plans, including 401(k), profit sharing, money purchase, and defined benefit plans. We design and refresh 403(b), 457(b), and 457(f) arrangements for tax-exempt and governmental employers. Our work includes plan documents, amendments, compliance calendars, fiduciary committee charters, investment policy statements, and participant communications. We regularly review and advise on a myriad of investment types for institutional pension plans, including drafting of side letters for governmental plans. We address nondiscrimination testing, controlled group and affiliated service group analyses, and correction of operational and document failures through the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System and the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program. We handle qualified domestic relations orders, plan mergers and terminations, and submissions to the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
On the health and welfare side, we advise on self-insured and insured medical, dental, vision, life, disability, cafeteria, and flexible spending arrangements. We guide compliance with the Affordable Care Act, COBRA, HIPAA privacy and security, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act transparency and gag-clause rules. We negotiate stop-loss policies, third-party administration agreements, pharmacy benefit manager contracts, and provider services agreements, and we implement governance and documentation that hold up in audits.
Executive compensation is a core strength. We structure employment, severance, change in control, and retention programs that align incentives with performance and risk. Our team implements nonqualified deferred compensation, supplemental retirement arrangements, equity and synthetic equity, stock options, restricted stock, performance units, stock appreciation rights, and phantom equity. We navigate Internal Revenue Code Sections 409A, 280G, and 162(m) in real time, including valuation, exemption strategies, and parachute mitigation. We regularly advise compensation and retirement committees on fiduciary process, disclosure considerations for private offerings, and governance protocols.
Transactions and Regulatory Advocacy
In mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, we run targeted diligence, quantify risk, and deliver integration plans that preserve benefits value and avoid compliance traps. We draft covenants and closing deliverables, evaluate multiemployer and defined benefit liabilities, and coordinate vendor transitions. When issues surface, we resolve them through closing adjustments or post-closing remediation. We appear before the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in audits, correction programs, and advisory interactions, and we obtain practical outcomes that keep plans on track.
