ERISA and Employee Benefits

The complex world of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), employee benefits and executive compensation is perhaps more highly regulated than any other area of organizational life. Our experienced team of ERISA lawyers and litigators have decades of experience in providing cutting-edge solutions and programs, to address unique employee benefits and executive compensation issues faced by employers every day.

In light of the aggressive rise in ERISA class action lawsuits in both the retirement plan and, , health plan areas – lawsuits that expose an employer’s Board of Directors, C-Suite and other employees to personal liability under ERISA – our ERISA attorneys have developed unique compliance and fiduciary protection programs to help employers minimize their risks. Examples include:

• Fiduciary protection programs: Address personal liability exposure that ERISA imposes upon an employer’s Board of Directors, C-Suite and other employees in connection with employer-sponsored retirement and health plans, including D&O ERISA coverage analysis.
• Plan protection programs: ERISA cybersecurity contractual analysis, arbitration clauses, plan expense protocols, fiduciary training, and certification.
• Customized legal compliance audits: Ensure that retirement and health plan documentation, governance and administration strictly comply with applicable laws including ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code and the Affordable Care Act.
• 24/7 on-call compliance services: Tailored to the client’s needs regarding employee benefit compliance, administration, and governance.
• Appeal protocols: Designed for ERISA’s mandatory internal claims and appeals of benefit decisions under retirement and health plans.
• Missing participants and recovery of plan assets: Recovery of plan assets for retirement and certain health plans. Missing participant identification programs.
• Corrections: DOL/IRS voluntary compliance correction programs.
• Mental Health Parity: Mental health parity compliance and fiduciary protection programs.

We help guide clients through complex federal and state tax laws, including compliance correction programs that govern retirement and health plans. We also design executive compensation and equity-based arrangements severance plans, early retirement window programs and other tax compliant arrangements.

We have developed crisis management protocols in response to cybersecurity and other breaches of retirement and health plan accounts. Our ERISA team also provides cybersecurity and indemnification analysis of third-party administrative contracts and ERISA fiduciary training for boards, officers and others involved in the administration of benefit plans.

We help employers navigate and comply with complex tax and benefits laws in establishing plans and arrangements tailored to an employer’s specific needs such as:

• Student Loan Repayment 401(k) plans
• Fixed-Fee ERISA Compliance Reviews
• Fiduciary Training and Certification
• Employee Crisis Funds
• Wrap Plans
• VEBAs
• HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, AHPs
• Generationally Appropriate Fringe Benefit Plans
• Deferred Compensation and Stock-Based Plans 

We offer unique insight into what works and doesn’t work with respect to incentivizing and rewarding executives including establishment of bonus, severance, equity incentive, and deferred compensation plans among other qualified and non-qualified plans and arrangements. We analyze the needs of the employer, compare it with other competitors where appropriate and provide counsel on effective plan design and operation that is compliant with applicable provisions of ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code including sections 280G and 409A.

A sudden rise in ERISA fiduciary litigation under health plans has joined an aggressive period of similar challenges to retirement plans. The results have cost employers’ billions of dollars over the last few years. Our ERISA litigators have vast experience in representing clients before courts, tribunals, and regulators including the IRS, DOL, PBGC, and HHS.