Services
Retirement Plans. We provide services relating to the design, implementation and administration of qualified retirement plans, including defined benefit plans, (traditional and cash balance plans) 401(k) and other defined contribution plans, ESOP’s, and other specialized plans. We also have assisted employers in correcting a broad range of plan defects, as well as assisting employers with IRS, DOL or PBGC audits.
We have handled complex defined benefit plan funding issues, including DB plans in bankruptcies, minimum funding waivers, merger and acquisition issues and complex negotiations with PBGC. We are working with employers on new funding and fiduciary rules under the Pension Protection Act. The consolidation and transition of the automotive industry has presented many cutting edge issues.
Retirement Plan Investing and Fiduciary Issues. We advise on all legal issues pertaining to retirement plan administration and investing. This could involve single or multiple employer pension plans, 401(k)s, ESOPs or funded welfare plans. We advise on ERISA’s prudence requirements, and translate them into concrete actions in the real world. We make sure that your investment professionals (third party trustees, investment managers, investment advisors and the like) properly accept fiduciary responsibility, thus taking a load off your shoulders. We help implement commission recapture programs, to maximize value from brokerage commissions and other overhead costs of trust investing. We structure investment arrangements in participants’ directed account plans (404(c) plans), so that participants achieve flexibility as well as responsibility for their own investment decisions. We make sure that your providers and advisors in those plans acknowledge their obligations to you.
We have counseled our clients for many years about “hidden fees” and excessive costs in 401(k) plans. Many plan sponsors are now being sued over theses issues….but not our clients.
Governmental Plans. We have been representing various state and local government retirement plans for decades. We are aware of the particular needs of governmental situations, and we have a “head start” on the P.A. 314 fiduciary rules; we’ve been working with them in the ERISA context for decades. We have deeper experience than most any Michigan pension counsel.
VEBAs. Our private employer clients have been using VEBAs for decades, and now our governmental clients are also doing so. We have solid experience in the tax, funding, design, and compliance requirements. We have participated in the creation and funding of some of the largest VEBA’s in the U.S. We also represent “retirees only” VEBA’s resulting from employer bankruptcies.
ERISA Litigation. We generally serve as defense attorneys to retirement or ERISA welfare plans which are being sued, or to their fiduciaries. We also serve as plaintiffs’ counsel for plans or plan sponsors with liability claims against service providers (for example, actuaries, attorneys, trustees, etc.). We have litigated major cases involving fiduciary obligations and early retirement windows, actuarial and legal malpractice involving ERISA matters, disclosures to welfare plan participants, ESOP fiduciary liability issues, and retirement trustee investment liability.
Mergers & Acquisitions. Our clients are continually engaged in acquisitions and divestitures of all types of private and public companies involving,
- asset purchases
- stock purchases
- plant closings and the like
- taxable and non-taxable mergers
Our experience in these matters is long and deep. We handle the employee benefits aspects of M & A, from initial design and due diligence, to sales agreements, negotiations (including with government agencies), transition and implementation.
Executive Compensation. We implement key-person nonqualified deferred compensation plans with rabbi and other specialized trusts or insurance. Our experience includes nonqualified plans and executive compensation arrangements for profit employers as well as eligible and ineligible 457 plans for tax-exempt employers. We have extensive experience reviewing executive deferred compensation arrangements for compliance with Code Section 409A. We are also on top of the new SEC disclosure rules pertaining to executive compensation.
Plans In Trouble. We advise on action to correct document and operational failures that adversely affect the qualification of a plan, and resolve plan compliance matters, (including audits or other governmental involvement by the IRS, DOL and PBGC). We obtain minimum funding waivers and other funding relief. We advise on the interplay of bankruptcy law and employee benefits law. We have served as special counsel to bankruptcy attorneys concerning pension and welfare plan issues.
Cafeteria Plans. We design cafeteria and flexible benefit plans for both large and small employers to provide employees and retirees with individual choice in welfare benefits, while lowering employer costs. We advise as to the complicated nondiscrimination rules that must be satisfied for the cafeteria plan as well as the underlying component plans.
Medical Benefits, HIPAA Compliance. We can help lower the employer cost of delivering medical benefits to employees and retirees through self-funded arrangements, plan design and documentation. Compliance with FASB rules on reporting retiree medical expense can be eased, and the expense reduced. As noted above, we have extensive experience with VEBAs, particularly those used to fund medical benefits on a tax-efficient basis. We have implemented HIPAA compliance programs for both health plan sponsors and providers.
Tax Shelter. We design and implement ultra-high tax shelter retirement plans, while limiting the cost for staff employees.
Employment Issues. We advise on employment discrimination questions, Family and Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) and COBRA. We prepare employee handbooks and policies, and design early retirement windows with related age discrimination waivers. We counsel with human resource administrators on a variety of personnel matters inherent to the operation of any organization such as employee leave entitlement, harassment investigations, performance evaluations and improvement plans and employee discharge to name a few.
Estate and Distribution Planning. We advise on methods of receiving distributions from retirement plans, and prepare estate plan documents (such as individually designed beneficiary designations) where retirement benefits are a large estate asset.