Employee Benefits

Scope of Practice

Our employee benefits practice is dynamic, evolving with the law and economics of the day.

Our clients seek advice and counsel on retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and executive compensation, which requires integrated knowledge of income taxation, employment law, fiduciary responsibility, privacy requirements, and transactional law.

Our advice reflects our understanding of legal possibilities, economic realities, tax-saving opportunities, employees’ desires and employers’ objectives.

Our attorneys –

  • Practice regularly before IRS, DOL and PBGC, and analyze employee benefit matters under the Tax Code, COBRA, ERISA, HIPAA, securities laws, USERRA and other laws.
  • Possess specialized knowledge of retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and executive compensation.
  • Work with outside professionals and vendors, including actuaries, accountants, third party administrators, record keepers, institutional trustees and custodians, investment managers, health and life insurers, group annuity insurers, fiduciary liability insurers, brokers, and insurance or investment consultants.
  • Negotiate and document agreements with plan service providers to outsource benefits administration.
  • Prepare mandatory notices and other communications from plan sponsors to plan participants, explaining the availability and terms of benefit plans.
  • Determine conditions for offering benefits to contingent workers, expatriates, independent contractors, leased workers and part-time employees.
  • Perform litigation risk assessments, and work with clients to avoid controversies or resolve disputes prior to litigation. Advise litigation counsel on technical issues under ERISA and the Tax Code, such as the application of attorney-client and work-product privileges to fiduciaries; distinguishing between fiduciary and non-fiduciary conduct; applying the standard for ERISA preemption of state law; identifying the scope of remedies under ERISA; interpreting disputed benefit plan terms; and analyzing technical, complex regulations.
  • Identify and help resolve employee benefit issues in the context of corporate acquisitions, divestitures and mergers; reductions in force; and plan terminations. Confer, coordinate or negotiate with in-house counsel and transactional counsel.
  • Identify and help resolve employee benefit issues in the context of bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings. Confer and coordinate with in-house counsel and bankruptcy counsel.
  • Provide technical expertise to lobbyists and other government relations specialists, including those preparing testimony for hearings before Congressional committees, IRS and other government entities.

Representative Clients

SS&B represents clients of all types and sizes across the country. Some clients are highly sophisticated in employee benefits matters; others are just beginning to develop significant benefit plans for their employees.

Our clients include –

  • Employers. We counsel a variety of employers doing business in various forms, including Fortune 500 corporations, family businesses and other closely-held entities, and US subsidiaries of European companies.
  • Association and Member Service Representation. We counsel associations with regard to ERISA and non-ERISA member service programs. We sometimes represent the program itself. We have extensive experience representing associations and member service programs with DOL investigations.
  • Tax-Exempt Entities. We counsel non-profit entities regarding IRS qualification standards under Section 457 and Section 403(b) of the Tax Code. We also represent church-related entities that sponsor or administer church plans, which are subject to special rules and exemptions under ERISA and the Tax Code.
  • Benefit Plans. We counsel single and multiple employer benefit plan entities, including trusts, ESOP boards of trustees, multiple employer plans, multiple employer welfare arrangements and VEBAs, which are subject to special rules under ERISA, the Tax Code and state law.
  • Third Party Administrators. For TPAs, we prepare model documents (plan agreements, trust agreements, summary plan descriptions, administrative service agreements), provide counsel on legal compliance requirements, and help TPAs resolve matters involving their own clients.
  • Individuals. We counsel individuals on employee benefits matters, such as the tax consequences of distributions from qualified plans, individual benefit claims, advice on fiduciary duty and personal liability for trustees and other individual fiduciaries, the status of individual benefit assets in personal bankruptcies, and employment terminations where benefit entitlements are at issue.

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