Overview

Bond’s employee benefits and executive compensation attorneys counsel employers on all aspects of these complex and constantly-changing fields of law, helping employers design and maintain benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements that meet business needs and satisfy legal requirements.

Our clients include public and private for-profit employers; colleges, universities, hospitals and other non-profit organizations; financial institutions; governmental entities (including school districts and municipalities); boards of directors; boards of trustees; individual fiduciaries and fiduciary committees; and individual executives.  

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Executive Compensation and "Non-Qualified" Deferred Compensation Arrangements

Due to the restrictions imposed by ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, it is often difficult to structure tax-qualified deferred compensation arrangements that are sufficient to attract, retain and reward executives and other key employees. To address these problems, many employers have turned to executive compensation and/or "non-qualified" deferred compensation arrangements, including SERPs, equity-based arrangements (e.g., stock options, restricted stock and phantom stock), and change in control/golden parachute arrangements. We assist clients in the design, implementation and administration of arrangements that meet the client's specific needs and objectives. This assistance includes structuring arrangements to comply with the broad deferred compensation requirements in Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Our attorneys have substantial experience in counseling clients regarding the employee benefits issues that often arise in the context of corporate transactions. Our services often include the evaluation of the liabilities and responsibilities of the buyer and seller in connection with employee benefits arrangements, the performance of "due diligence" reviews and drafting or reviewing employee benefit-related provisions of the documents accomplishing the transaction.

Retirement Plans

Retirement plans are an important tool for attracting, retaining and rewarding employees. However, such plans must comply with numerous statutory and regulatory requirements in order to provide retirement benefits in a manner that is advantageous both to the employer and the employees. There are numerous types of retirement plans that a client, depending on its needs, may maintain to provide retirement benefits to its employees on a tax-favored basis. Such plans include:

  • defined benefit plans
  • cash balance plans
  • money purchase pension plans
  • profit sharing plans
  • 401(k) plans
  • employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
  • tax-sheltered annuity plans (403(b) plans)

The employee benefits and executive compensation practice has extensive experience working with clients in the establishment and administration of all types of retirement plans. Depending upon the client's needs, our services could encompass: initial planning and consultation regarding the objectives of the plan; plan design and drafting; employee communications; guiding the plan through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) qualification process; advice on plan administration and fiduciary obligations; assistance in retaining the services of investment managers, third-party administrators and other service providers; representation during IRS, United States Department of Labor (DOL), and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation audits and litigation; and modification, conversion, merger and termination of the plan.

In addition, we assist clients in the identification of administrative errors that could result in the loss of a plan's tax-favored status, and the correction of such errors through the various voluntary compliance programs maintained by the IRS and the DOL. We also have significant experience in legal matters associated with participation in multiemployer pension plans and, in particular, withdrawal liability issues and disputes.

Welfare Benefit Plans

In recent years, welfare benefit plans have become the subject of substantially increased regulation. Our attorneys assist clients in the design, implementation and administration of numerous welfare benefit arrangements, including:

  • group health plans
  • group-term life insurance plans
  • cafeteria plans
  • dependent care assistance plans
  • disability plans
  • voluntary employee benefit associations (VEBAs)
  • tuition reduction plans
  • educational assistance plans
  • adoption assistance plans
  • qualified transportation benefits plans
  • employee assistance plans
  • severance pay and separation incentive plans
  • health savings accounts
  • medical savings account plans

In particular, we counsel clients regarding the health care continuation coverage requirements of COBRA, the requirements imposed on group health plans by legislation such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the administration of benefit claims review and appeals procedures and the implementation of separation incentive and early retirement programs designed to comply with age discrimination laws.