Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation

Successful employee benefits and executive compensation planning requires a proactive approach and the experience to navigate evolving laws and regulations. For decades, Dickinson Wright’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice has delivered comprehensive, integrated solutions that serve the needs of employers and employees while helping clients control costs and avoid penalties and litigation.

As a full-service law firm, we draw on the strengths of lawyers across the firm. We work closely with members of our Corporate, Mergers and Acquisitions, Labor and Employment, ERISA Litigation, and Taxation practices to provide a broad view of employee benefits matters. We also consult with actuaries, accountants, and benefits professionals to help ensure that plans and programs support each client’s business needs and objectives.

Our Clients

From startups to international corporations, our clients represent a range of industries and include publicly and privately held companies, automotive suppliers, financial institutions, medical providers, and private equity firms.

Our Team

Our Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice is ranked by Chambers USA®, and many members of the team are individually recognized by Chambers USA®, Super Lawyers®, Best Lawyers®, and other leading evaluating organizations. Several of our lawyers have also served as plan sponsors and fiduciaries of the firm’s own retirement and welfare benefit plans.

Our Services

We help clients stay informed about changes in employee benefits law and reduce the risk of costly disputes. Our lawyers draft, review, and implement plans covering a broad range of employee benefits matters, including:

Retirement and Pension Plans

Our employee benefits team advises on the design, implementation, and administration of:

Welfare and Fringe Benefit Plans

We handle legal matters involving a variety of insured and self-funded welfare benefit plans, including:

Executive Compensation

Our attorneys advise companies and compensation committees on the tax, ERISA, and securities law requirements governing executive compensation programs. We help clients comply with legislative and regulatory requirements and follow sound corporate practices. Our services include:

Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Associations

Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Associations can help employers address liabilities associated with retiree health care coverage, pension payments, and other promised benefits. They are frequently used, particularly in corporate bankruptcies, to cap retiree benefit costs and reduce the need to reflect future benefit obligations on GAAP-compliant financial statements. Our work includes:

• Designing VEBA plans and creating new welfare benefit plans to replace employer-provided benefits
• Designing VEBAs that reimburse health insurance and life insurance costs
• Negotiating VEBA settlement agreements in Chapter 11 bankruptcies
• Drafting VEBA trusts, investment guidelines, and board bylaws
• Providing HIPAA training and long-term assistance with VEBA administration
• Developing mechanisms that tie employee productivity to employer VEBA funding obligations
• Assisting nonprofit organizations with maximizing state contract benefits

Representative Matters

• Counseled a broad range of employers on the tax and ERISA aspects of welfare benefit plans, including Section 125 plans, COBRA compliance, consumer-directed health plans, retiree medical plans, VEBAs, and wellness programs.
• Served as counsel to governmental entities in connection with the operation of defined contribution, defined benefit, retiree health, and medical plans.
• Advised clients on correcting retirement plan administration errors, including late transfers of deferrals and failures to timely amend plan documents.
• Counseled clients on qualified retirement plan and labor relations issues arising in union negotiations and collective bargaining, including multiemployer pension fund contributions and withdrawal liability.
• Provided strategic advice to a publicly traded Fortune 500 company on managing more than 100 multiemployer pension funds in endangered or critical status and addressing withdrawal liability risk.
• Advised plan sponsors on the design, implementation, and administration of 401(k), profit-sharing, defined benefit, ESOP, 403(b), and 457 plans, and counseled investment committees on their ERISA fiduciary responsibilities.
• Assisted companies and owners with structuring and implementing employee stock ownership plans in connection with the sale of company stock to an ESOP, including advice concerning gain-recognition deferral under Section 1042 of the Internal Revenue Code.
• Advised companies on the design, implementation, and administration of insured and self-insured medical, dental, life insurance, disability, and cafeteria plans, including flexible spending account and pretax premium plans.
• Counseled clients on compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
• Designed a health risk assessment program integrated with employer wellness programs and incentives and compliant with ERISA, HIPAA, the ADA, and GINA.
• Counseled companies and compensation committees on executive compensation arrangements, including supplemental executive retirement plans, excess benefit plans, change-in-control agreements, severance agreements, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, restricted stock plans, stock options, incentive programs, insurance-based programs, and employee stock purchase plans.
• Reviewed and revised deferred compensation plans and employment agreements for compliance with Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code.