Employee Benefits/ERISA/Executive Compensation

Our employee benefits attorneys—many with government experience and all able to identify creative, informal solutions for client issues—address complex tax, Title I (fiduciary), Title IV (plan termination and withdrawal liability), transaction, and legislative matters. 

Our clients include large and mid-sized employers, entities that sponsor qualified plans, trade associations, state and local government plans (including the largest public pension plan in the nation), financial institutions and a range of tax-exempt organizations.

We regularly represent clients before the IRS and the Department of Labor on requests for advisory opinions, information letters, and rulings and with respect to audits.  We keep clients aware of ongoing developments in Washington, DC through client memoranda.

ERISA
Our tax attorneys who focus on the benefits practice have the added resource of one of the nation’s preeminent ERISA practices.  Our coordination with our ERISA colleagues, who often counsel large financial institutions and other investment advisers, gives us a wide variety of insight into practice and legal issues involving plan distribution rules and disclosure issues. 

The exposure we have to the work of our litigation attorneys not only assures our clients effective representation in court, but also allows us to bring practical considerations to bear with respect to avoidance of potential liability and exposure on planning matters. 

Representative Matters

IRS Compliance Programs

• Represented two large financial institutions that sponsored prototype plans in separate representations before the IRS in compliance. procedures necessary to correct prior legal and administrative failures
• Represented tax-exempt employer that had numerous operational failures in its 403(b) plan. We significantly reduced the applicable penalties and then reworked and redrafted the clients’ future benefits program.

Audits

• Assisted several clients in audits and reviews of executive compensation and ESOPs at both the IRS and the Labor Department; in one case, obtained a legislative solution to satisfy the Labor Department

Executive Compensation 

• Revised numerous clients’ executive compensation program and documents to comply with Section 409A of the Code, including a thorough review of two clients’ plans in connection with a merger and sale 

Operations 

• Addressed vesting and distribution issues for state pension fund, and reviewed state statutes to ensure that they complied with federal tax law
• Revised numerous 401(k) plans and to adopt safe harbor formula and Roth accounts
• Examined the effect of an employer’s rehiring former employees on the employer’s pension and health insurance plans 

Severance and Claims Issues

• Reviewed and reworked severance arrangements for a tax-exempt client, including negotiating severance agreements with prior participants.

News

• Best Lawyers in America 2007 Lists Steptoe Attorneys
• Anne Moran Writes on Pension Leaks, Deferred Compensation

Events

• Annual Employment Law Update: What In-House Counsel and HR Executives Need to Know
• Codification of Economic Substance Doctrine - Is It an Idea Whose Time has Come and Gone?
• Teleconference: Final 409A Regulations: Deferred Compensation

Speaking Engagements

• Melanie Nussdorf Discusses Latest Developments at the PLI Pension Plan Investments 2007 Conference
• Anne Moran Speaks on Domestic Partner Benefits Issues to Consider at National CLE Conference

Publications

• Electronic Notices and Consents: The IRS Issues Final Regulations
  Spring 2007, Employee Relations Law Journal Vol 32 No 4
• The New Pension Protection Act: More Work for Plan Administrators
  Winter 2006, Employee Relations Law Journal Vol 32 No 3
• Fixing the Problem: Correcting Errors in Qualified Plans
  Fall 2006, Employee Relations Law Journal
• Spend Now, Spend Later: New Protections for Retirement Account Assets in Bankruptcy
  Summer 2006, Employee Relations Law Journal