ERISA & Employee Benefits

Details

HunterMaclean’s ERISA and employee benefits practice group advises public, private, taxable, and tax-exempt clients on a wide variety of employee benefit issues related to the design, documentation, and administration of all forms of employee benefit plans and executive compensation programs, including pension plans, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, ESOPs, welfare benefit plans, stock option plans, incentive compensation programs, and post-retirement plans.

We also represent plan administrators and investment fiduciaries, advising them on a wide range of issues related to their fiduciary and administrative duties with respect to their employee benefit plans. We have extensive experience advising plan sponsors and plan fiduciaries with respect to plan investment activities, including negotiating investment management agreements and reviewing investment vehicles.

We advise clients on golden parachute, executive and equity-based compensation, and employee benefit plan issues that arise in negotiating mergers and other acquisitions or dispositions. We represent clients in working on the wide range of difficult post-merger or other business combination or disposition issues related to integrating different benefit plans, structures, and compensation policies and practices or breaking-up of such plans, structures, policies, and practices.

Experience

• Negotiating third party services agreements on behalf of the plan sponsors, including investment management of trustee and recordkeeper agreements.
• Meeting with and providing regular advice to five fiduciary investment committees for their $1 billion plus pension and 401 (k) plans.
• Negotiating changes in trustee and other service providers for several large ($1 billion plus) defined benefit and 401(k) plans.
• Assisting clients in restructuring 401(k) plan investment options, including participant communications and third party agreements.
• Representing several large employers in the negotiations of key executive employment and deferred compensation agreements.
• Advising a large tax-exempt organization on compensation issues for key employees under the “intermediate sanctions” provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.
• Advising and representing clients under the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System and Department of Labor Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program to correct certain plan qualification failures and improper fiduciary actions.
• Representing employers of all sizes in Department of Labor and IRS audits of 401(k) and welfare benefit plans.
• Negotiating service provider agreements on behalf of plan sponsors for welfare plans and retirement plans (e.g. claims administration services agreement for a self-insured medical plan; investment management agreements for pension plans; consulting agreements for medical plans; investment consulting agreements for 401(k) plan fiduciary committees)
• Advising ERISA plan administrative committees on determinations of ERISA claims and appeals

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