Bookmark and Share
 

Employee Benefits

Qualified Retirement Plans

Butzel Long’s Employee Benefits team provides a comprehensive array of technical compliance and counseling services that relate to a business’s qualified retirement plans. Our attorneys assist employers throughout the life cycle of a retirement plan, from initial plan design and drafting through plan termination and disposition of its assets, while maintaining the objective of helping make retirement plans effective tools in meeting an employer’s specific benefits needs.  Butzel Long’s clients rely on the extensive experience our attorneys possess in structuring plans, amending plans to comply with constantly changing technical requirements, advising on plan administration and compliance issues, obtaining favorable IRS determination letters, and assisting with plan compliance corrections through government sponsored compliance programs.  In addition to drafting individually designed retirement plans, Butzel Long sponsors both a prototype defined contribution retirement plan and a volume submitter defined contribution retirement plan for clients who may benefit from these types of pre-approved plans.

Experience

Assisted large manufacturing company in responding to Pension Protection Act funding limitations on plan distributions and benefit accruals, including union implications
Assisted tier one automotive supplier in structuring plant closing benefits for union employees; analyzed legal issues on providing pension accruals post-plant closing and advice on benefit funding, vesting and reporting and disclosure obligations
Assisted tier one automotive supplier with merging single employer union pension plan into multiemployer national pension fund; negotiated merger agreement and liability and asset transfer terms; provided technical compliance guidance
Assisted with termination, assignment and transition of employee benefits programs in stock sale of information technology-based subsidiary of public company, including assigning certain plans to parent and transitioning other programs to buyer.
Established fiduciary compliance program for qualified retirement plans with 9,000 participants/$600 million in assets; drafted documents on committee members, authority, responsibility and rules and policies for paying expenses from plan assets