ERISA/Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

ERISA, executive compensation and other employee benefit plans involve complex intersections of federal labor, tax, securities, corporate and administrative law, as well as applicable state laws. You need counsel who can cut through these complexities when drafting, implementing or reviewing these plans on your behalf. Your legal team must also be prepared to provide you with a clear analysis of the benefits and compensation considerations at hand if your company is engaged in a merger, acquisition, spin-off or reorganization.

A Track Record You Can Rely On

Holland & Knight's employee benefits and executive compensation attorneys’ have many years of experience guiding companies like yours through the benefits and compensation maze. Our Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and ERISA Group is dedicated to providing you with the local and national assistance to help you be successful. And if you are a tax-exempt organization or governmental entity with special employee plan requirements – including tax-sheltered annuities and deferred compensation – we will draw in lawyers from across the firm with specific experience in these areas.

Guiding You on the Design, Drafting and Qualification of Your Employee Plan

Regardless of the type of your organization or business, our Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and ERISA attorneys can conduct a review of your current employee plans, handle the planning and design of new or modified plans, and take the appropriate steps to ensure that your plans comply under ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code and other applicable statutes and regulations. You can rely on the commitment of our counsel to provide guidance on a full array of plans, including the following:

• pension, profit-sharing, cash balance and employee stock ownership plans
• Section 401(k) cash or deferred arrangements, and 404(c) participant-directed investment plans
• stock options, restricted stock and other equity compensation plans
• nonqualified deferred compensation plans
• group health and welfare plans, cafeteria plans, severance plans and Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs)
• multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs) and collectively bargained arrangements
• individual retirement accounts and annuities, and simplified employee pension plans

Our lawyers can also counsel you on a wide range of related issues – from vesting, funding requirements, tax deduction rules, fiduciary duties and government agency reporting requirements to distribution requirements and identifying prohibited transactions.

Plan Compliance and Maintenance

Holland & Knight's Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and ERISA Group can also assist you with plan compliance and maintenance. The legal services we provide to help ensure that your plans comply with applicable laws include the following:

• detailed analyses of employee benefits legislation and proposed changes in the law
• counsel on government reporting, participant disclosure, nondiscrimination and minimum coverage requirements
• advice on the intricacies of multi-employer and Taft-Hartley plans, collective bargaining agreements and the assignment of pension benefits in connection with Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs)

If you require a detailed review of your employee plans and trust documents, as well as the documents you use to communicate the details of your plans to plan participants, our team is prepared to help you. Addressing any issues that have arisen with your current plans – and our focus on advising you on how to avoid problems in the future – are also ways that we can help you be compliant. Our attorneys work with your team of human resources and benefits employees and consultants to provide workable solutions to your benefit plan issues.

Helping You to Prevent Breach of Fiduciary Responsibility

Managing plan asset investments such as an ERISA fiduciary is a serious responsibility. Whether you are a named fiduciary, plan administrator, investment manager or advisor, trustee or other ERISA plan fiduciary, you can be confident that our ERISA attorneys are committed to providing practical guidance to help you avoid liability from a breach of your fiduciary responsibilities. We are dedicated to helping you accomplish the following:

• develop a clearly delineated explanation of your fiduciary duties
• strategize ways of avoiding personal exposure
• create a 404(c) participant-directed investment plan to reduce your liability in volatile market conditions
• formulate procedures aimed at preventing prohibited transactions
• correct past fiduciary breaches and provide legal support in any audits or claims you might face

Setting Up an ESOP

You can also rely on the Holland & Knight team for counsel on profit-sharing plans, including the ESOP, or Employee Stock Ownership Plan. We can counsel you on each stage of the ESOP cycle – from feasibility studies to plan termination – and will bring in other highly experienced attorneys in our Mergers and Acquisitions, Public Companies and Securities, Taxation and Banking and Finance practices on an as needed basis.

Employee Health and Welfare Plans

Holland & Knight is prepared to work closely with you to meet your objectives in the design, implementation, administration or review of health and welfare benefits for your employees. Our legal services in this area include the following:

• drafting/reviewing of cafeteria plans, dental and disability plans, accident benefits, health and life insurance, vacation pay, prepaid legal services, severance pay, dependent day care and scholarship funds
• drafting welfare plan documents, trusts, summary plan descriptions and other important plan communications
• reviewing existing plans and accompanying documents to ensure consistency and adherence to ever-changing employee benefits regulations
• reviewing compliance with regulations, including the ADA, ADEA, COBRA, ERISA, HIPAA, FMLA and USERRA
• modifying existing plans to meet changing regulations and workforce requirements
• evaluating ways of defraying health benefit costs via health reimbursement or flexible spending accounts
• assisting with all administrative matters, from enrollment forms and COBRA requirements to Qualified Medical Child Support Orders and retiree benefits

When Problems Arise – Experience Is Beneficial

Because employee benefit plans are complex, mistakes are sometimes made in the way they are administered. When problems arise, you need swift, thorough corrections made on your behalf – and advice on how to avoid mistakes in the future. Our ERISA law team has extensive experience with several correction methods, including the Department of Labor’s Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program and Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program, as well as the IRS’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System. Whenever possible, our goal is to advise you on ways to design administrative procedures that will prevent future errors from occurring.

Vigorous Representation in ERISA Litigation or Dispute Resolution

Should you face an ERISA problem that requires dispute resolution, our ERISA and employee benefits attorneys are dedicated to working hard to achieve success for you in arbitration and mediation proceedings. If litigation cannot be avoided, you can be assured of a Holland & Knight ERISA and benefits litigation team with extensive experience in the representation of clients before the IRS, the Department of Labor and the Pension and Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Your team will include attorneys from our Litigation Practice, one of the largest groups of litigators in the United States.

Executive Compensation Advice

Companies require broad and flexible compensation policies to hire and retain first-rate executives. Our team can help you to draft and implement the funding mechanisms for executive compensation plans. These include deferred compensation agreements, long-term incentive plans, stock options and consulting agreements, among numerous other employee benefits instruments. Our team also has experience with termination agreements and change in control agreements.

We also take steps to maximize the deductibility of executive compensation for our corporate clients’ highest paid employees; assist with “golden parachute” and “golden handcuff” implications of your compensation plan; and properly manage the necessary disclosures for SEC filings, proxy materials and prospectuses.