We provide results-oriented legal advice to a diverse client base. Our clients include large publicly-traded employers, privately-held businesses, church-sponsored and other tax-exempt organizations, state and local governments, professional firms, and individuals. We help clients design, prepare and implement qualified retirement plans, including 401(k) and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP), executive compensation and incentive programs, cafeteria plans, health benefit plans, and other welfare and fringe benefit arrangements.
Executive Compensation
Our team assists clients with designing and implementing all types of executive compensation arrangements, including C-level employment; severance and change-in-control agreements; stock and cash-based executive compensation and incentive programs; deferred compensation; supplemental executive retirement plans; stock options; stock appreciation rights; and restricted stock and phantom stock plans.
A full service firm, we engage our attorneys from other disciplines, as well as the employer’s other outside advisors, to address issues affecting executive compensation; not only tax and ERISA, but corporate and securities laws, stock exchange requirements, accounting issues and the concerns of institutional investors.
We are experienced in designing and implementing compensation programs for tax-exempt employers and are well-versed in the unique issues that arise in this environment.
Our attorneys work with firms’ corporate attorneys to structure the terms of executive compensation plans or individual agreements in the corporate and M&A context, advising both boards of directors and individuals.
Health and Welfare Benefits
Dinsmore helps clients navigate the difficult and often conflicting rules which apply to health and welfare benefits, such as health plans, dental plans, flexible benefits, long and short-term disability benefits, group and individual life insurance, severance plans and other benefits. Our attorneys are frequently called on to help clients comply with both federal laws (such as ERISA, COBRA, ADA, FMLA, and HIPAA) and, increasingly, state statutes which attempt to regulate health and other benefits. Our attorneys frequently speak and write about health and welfare benefits issues.
Compliance
Our attorneys advise clients about compliance issues that apply to employee benefit plans, including:
- The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA);
- The Internal Revenue Code (IRC);
- The Affordable Care Act (ACA);
- The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA);
- Health care continuation coverage under state and federal law (COBRA);
- Federal and state benefit plan mandates; and
- State insurance law and state and federal securities law.
When issues occur, we help clients with voluntary correction programs (VCP) under Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor guidelines. We also assist clients with preparing employee communications and other materials to satisfy reporting and disclosure obligations.
Tax-Exempt Employers
We counsel tax-exempt, governmental and church-affiliated organizations in addressing benefit issues, including Section 403(b) tax deferred annuities, Section 457 deferred compensation plans and church plans.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Our attorneys work with the firm’s corporate attorneys to help structure the terms of business acquisitions and dispositions and to address the impact of transactions on the company’s employee benefit plans. We also assist post-acquisition with the clean-up, maintenance or termination of employee benefit plans.
Plan Audits
We help clients respond to and, when necessary, negotiate with the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation during plan audits, and we obtain determination letters for plan qualification, plan terminations, prohibited transaction exemptions and private letter rulings.