Roberts & Holland LLP

An important part of our practice involves helping clients manage the constantly changing, increasingly complicated employee benefits area. We design and implement tax-qualified plans of all types — pension, profit sharing, stock bonus and cash or deferred (Section 401(k)) plans which include single employer, multiple employer and multiemployer plans. In addition, we provide design and compliance advice with respect to nonqualified retirement plans for executives.

We also assist clients with welfare benefit plans, including insured health plans, HRAs, and other welfare benefits such as tuition reimbursement. Further, we advise clients on issues relating to “cafeteria plans" (such as health FSAs and adoption assistance programs), as well as VEBAs.

Representing clients before the IRS, the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, we counsel clients on compliance with frequent legislative and regulatory changes; advise on plan amendments, restatements and terminations; and prepare submissions for tax qualification where applicable. We work extensively with clients to identify and correct plan defects under self-correction programs established by the IRS and DOL, when necessary through submissions under the IRS Voluntary Correction Program and the DOL's Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program.  As the IRS and DOL have escalated their activity in auditing the growing number of Section 401(k) plans, we have substantially increased our participation in resolving controversies that arise in IRS and DOL audits.

We also review and negotiate third-party service agreements for employee benefit plans and have advised defined benefit plan sponsors on new trends in pension plan design such as de-risking strategies and the structuring and implementation of phased retirement programs. Further, we provide assistance in reviewing and drafting benefits-related provisions of our clients' collective bargaining agreements.

Our clients include multinational enterprises in a wide variety of industries, from real estate, biotechnology, insurance, legal services, professional sports and hotel and casino operations. Plan sponsors and administrators look to us for guidance in discharging their administrative and fiduciary responsibilities under the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA. We counsel and train ERISA fiduciaries on complying with their plan oversight responsibilities and advise them and IRA beneficiaries on the investment and management of plan assets to avoid application of the prohibited transaction rules. We advise investors on the establishment and operation of real estate and venture capital operating company (REOC and VCOC) entities and other investment funds to provide structures that conform to ERISA’s plan asset regulations.

We are often called upon to review employee benefit plan issues in connection with mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, leveraged stock and asset purchases and other restructurings. Through our active involvement in negotiating representations, warranties, covenants and indemnities, we are able to identify liabilities that may arise from the transaction and devise strategies to deal with them. We help acquiring companies integrate employee benefit and executive compensation arrangements into their own employee benefits structure, so as to avoid unnecessary expense and liability.