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Employee Benefits
Group Leader: Melissa Weaver
Hutchison Law Group advises and represents employers in all matters related to employee benefits, including qualified and non-qualified retirement plans and programs, welfare benefit plans such as health, life, disability and cafeteria plans and stock option and other equity compensation plans. In a regulatory environment that is frequently changing, we counsel employers on compliance with the numerous federal and state laws that affect their benefit plans and programs.
With benefit plans becoming an increasingly important part of a company’s compensation structure, our goal is to assist employers with providing the optimum mix of benefits for their workforce while containing costs and limiting liability, and we frequently work with the client’s other advisors in reaching this goal. To that end, we assist employers in plan design, documentation and administration, fiduciary responsibility and plan reporting and disclosure obligations. In keeping with our firm’s emphasis on proactive advice, we work closely with our clients to ensure that employee benefit plan communications to their workforce are timely, clear and current, and we can audit benefit plan documents and procedures to ensure that clients stay up to date in this always changing and complex area of the law. If compliance issues do arise, we are able to assist them in a resolution designed to preserve the benefits and minimize the cost to the employer.
We also represent employers in their role as plan sponsor in the event of a merger, acquisition, sale, or other business transaction. Our proactive role in advising clients on compliance can help ensure that there are no stumbling blocks in the benefits area when a transaction occurs.
We regularly provide counsel to our clients in the following areas:
- Qualified retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, defined benefit plans, ESOPs and cash balance plans
- Non-qualified deferred compensation plans, stock option and restricted stock plans, IRC §409A
- Health plans, including insured plans, self-insured plans, health savings accounts, retiree medical plan and Medicare + Choice plans
- Life, disability and accident plans
- Cafeteria plans
- COBRA continuation coverage
- HIPPAA privacy issues in benefit plans
- Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEPs), SIMPLE Plans
- Reporting and disclosure obligations, including IRS determination letter requests and Form 5500 filings
- Record keeping requirements
- Review of plan documentation and administrative practices for compliance with current laws and regulations
- Preparation of corporate minutes and resolutions regarding benefit plan matters
- Fiduciary responsibilities
- Benefit plans in mergers and acquisitions
- Securities law aspects of qualified plans of public companies
- Qualified domestic relations orders and qualified medical child support orders
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