ERISA

ERISA / Employee Benefits

Vandeventer Black’s ERISA & Employee Benefits Team partners with our clients for all their employee benefits needs.  Our attorneys are experienced in the full range of retirement and welfare benefit issues.  We are always available for consultation with you on any plan administration issues.  Particular areas of expertise are as follows:

Retirement Plans

Our attorneys have extensive experience with IRS qualified defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution plans.  We work with our clients and their vendors, accountants, actuaries and financial professionals to help them provide safe and attractive retirement benefits for their employees at the lowest administrative cost.  Our services include IRS and DOL compliance, plan drafting and amending, determination letter submissions, Pension Protection Act issues, administration issues, audits and IRS and DOL remedial procedures.  We also service non-qualified plans, including 457 plans, offered both for the employer’s workforce in general and special plans just for executives.

Fiduciary Advice

Our attorneys work with trustees of ERISA plans to guide them in accordance with the fiduciary standards imposed by federal law.  Protecting individuals from liability in such a complex and changing area is paramount in today’s market.

Health and Welfare Benefits

Our benefits team routinely assists employers with health and welfare benefit matters arising under ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, USERRA and the new health care legislation (PPACA).  We assist in drafting and amending plans, IRS and DOL compliance, and advise on VEBA and Cafeteria Plan issues.  Our attorneys are always available when a client has a quick question related to a particular employee’s question.

Executive Compensation

The Firm’s active executive compensation practice is focused on the structuring of non-qualified arrangements.  We design and assist our clients in implementing various packages such as phantom stock plans, “rabbi” trust arrangements, stock purchase and option agreements and other incentive or bonus plans, in order to supplement or replace traditional vehicles such as 401(k) plans and ESOPs.  We also work with lawyers in our labor & employment department to coordinate severance packages that implement special deferred compensation components.

Multiemployer Plans

Our attorneys have decades of experience representing Taft-Hartley multiemployer plans. We routinely handle complex issues such as withdrawal liability and Pension Protection Act compliance.  We work with our labor attorneys when collective bargaining issues intertwine with benefits matters.

ERISA Litigation

Our employee benefits lawyers work with the firm’s litigation department in any litigation that arises under ERISA or state court relating to employee benefit plans, including employee claims, fiduciary breaches, document compliance and financial issues.

Representative Matters

We serve as co-counsel to the HRSA-ILA Pension and Welfare Funds; seven Taft-Hartley plans providing income, retirement, vacation, short-term disability as well as other benefits to the longshore industry.

Successfully guided a plan with multiple operating failures through the VCP process and negotiated a nominal penalty.

Settled a matter with the IRS, in which the government threatened disqualification of a non-amended plan.  Participants’ assets were safeguarded.

Negotiated an exemption from a prohibited transaction with the DOL.

Reviewed multiple investment manager contracts, including amendments to investment guidelines.

Litigated the collection of mistaken overpayments to participants.