 |
|
Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen's benefits practice has a national reputation and a nationwide clientele.
Our clients cover the full spectrum of the benefits world:
- Large and small, closely-held and publicly traded businesses with retirement and welfare plans for their employees. We help businesses with plan design issues, answers to plan operation questions, issues with employees, correction of plan problems and advice to plan committee members about their responsibilities.
- Financial institutions, such as mutual fund management companies, insurance companies, and bank trust departments and trust companies, who provide investment packages and other services to plan sponsors.
- Plan fiduciaries. We help fiduciaries understand and comply with their ERISA duties and liabilities, prohibited transaction issues and plan investment responsibilities.
- Third party administrators and other plan advisors. We assist these organizations with technical compliance questions and professional liability issues.
- Multi-employer funds and their trustees on plan qualification, fiduciary responsibilities, benefits claims, contractual arrangements with service providers, and IRS, DOL and PBGC investigations, corrections and litigation.
Our benefits practice covers retirement plans, health and welfare programs, compensation planning and stock-based arrangements. More specifically, we have expertise in the following areas:
Establishing and Operating Single-Employer Plans
- Design and operation of qualified retirement plans of all types.
- Advice on fiduciary issues in the operation and investment of ERISA-covered plans, including the selection and monitoring of investment options for 401(k) plans.
- Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), including feasibility analysis, plan design and qualification, and transaction structuring and implementation.
- Design and operation of retirement programs for tax-exempt and government entities, including 403(b) annuity programs and Section 457 plans.
- Health and welfare arrangements, including cafeteria plans, insurance arrangements, uninsured medical reimbursement plans, VEBAs, HIPAA compliance and COBRA issues.
Operating Multi-Employer Plans
- Advice to plan trustees and representation of the plans in IRS and DOL audits and voluntary correction programs.
- Advice and litigation concerning benefits claims and fiduciary responsibilities.
Representation before Government Agencies
- Representation before the IRS, including the Voluntary Compliance Resolution Program (VCR) and Audit and Walk-in Closing Agreement Programs (CAP).
- Representation before the Department of Labor (DOL) and consultation about fiduciary responsibility and prohibited transaction issues.
- Representation before the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on plan termination and related issues.
Representation in Disputes
- Litigation on all aspects of compensation, retirement plan, and health and welfare plan issues, including litigation about fiduciary responsibility and professional liability issues.
- Advice to bankruptcy trustees, attorneys, creditors, and debtors regarding benefits issues for qualified and nonqualified retirement plans and welfare plans.
- Representation before the IRS Appeals Office, the U.S. Tax Court and all Federal Courts.
- Representation of service providers (including attorneys, accountants and third party administrators) in professional negligence litigation.
Compensation Planning
- Employment agreements, including compensation plans involving corporate stock, such as incentive stock options (ISOs), stock bonus plans, and stock options.
- Incentive compensation, including Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs), nonqualified deferred compensation, and both immediate and deferred incentive bonus programs.
- Nonqualified retirement and compensation plans, including supplemental executive retirement plans (SERPs), phantom stock plans, incentive bonus plans, and trusteed arrangements for funding those plans.
Our ERISA attorneys have served as expert witnesses and advisors on litigation matters including the calculation of benefits, professional malpractice, interpretation of plan documents, marital dissolution, investment advice, prohibited transactions, and ERISA preemption. We also have specialized ERISA litigators who primarily defend plan sponsors, fiduciaries and plan providers.
Our benefits attorneys have spoken to groups all over the country including the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting, American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA), National Institute of Pension Administrators (NIPA), International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Western Pension and Benefits Conference, American Institute of CPAs, American Bar Association, and The ESOP Association.
Our benefits department publishes six ERISA newsletters annually, which are distributed nationally to over 10,000 benefits professionals and plan sponsors. Those newsletters cover ERISA litigation, IRS and DOL audits, and plan design and operation. If you would like to receive these newsletters regularly, contact us.
We measure ourselves by these criteria:
- Technical excellence.
- Service and responsiveness to clients.
- Practical answers to complex legal questions. We draw on a wealth of practical experience to supplement our technical knowledge and give clients solutions to problems, not recitations of the law.
- Creativity. We use our knowledge and experience to navigate the maze of ERISA rules and give solutions that go beyond the standard or obvious answers.
- Representation by senior attorneys who have the advantage of years of learning and experience. While we use younger lawyers for research and other appropriate tasks, we closely manage that work to solve problems effectively and efficiently.
For more information about the services of our Employee Benefits practice, please contact INFO-RLRC@reish.com or phone (310) 478-5656.
|
