Since the passage of ERISA in 1974, Covington’s employee benefits lawyers have advised clients on all aspects of the design, funding, and administration of employee benefit plans. We help clients meet their employee benefit needs in the most innovative, cost-effective and efficient ways possible. We find practical solutions to the countless administrative issues that arise under tax-qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and fringe benefit programs that cover a diverse and dynamic work force.
We advise on a full range of retirement, health, and other welfare benefit plans, including the following common arrangements:
- Defined Benefit Pension Plans. We advise on all aspects of defined benefit pension plans. We assist companies in converting their traditional defined benefit plans to new designs, including cash balance, pension equity, and floor-offset plans. We help our clients address vesting, nondiscrimination, and other issues that arise when they freeze or terminate their defined benefit plans.
- Defined Contribution, 401(k), and 403(b) Plans. We advise on all aspects of defined contribution plan design and administration for companies, tax-exempt organizations, and other employers, from design of contribution structures to increasingly significant reporting disclosure requirements, investment issues, and fiduciary responsibilities. We help our clients update their plans with features such as auto-enrollment, default investment elections, participant investment advice, and effective control of investment management and recordkeeping fees.
- Non-Qualified Plans and Other Executive Compensation Arrangements. We advise on supplemental benefit plans, incentive and equity compensation arrangements, and other programs to attract and retain top-level talent. For more information about Executive and Equity Compensation, click here.
- Health Plans. We advise on a wide range of issues related to health benefits, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) and other health reform initiatives, COBRA and HIPAA compliance, Medicare secondary payer liability, medical liabilities hidden in workers' compensation arrangements, voluntary employees' beneficiary associations (VEBAs), and special tax rules for self-insured medical reimbursement plans. In the last several years, we have helped many employers establish innovative consumer-driven health programs, and we have helped employers reduce the cost of providing retiree medical benefits.
- Cafeteria Plans & Fringe Benefits. We help employers establish and administer cafeteria plans and separate plans that offer a full range of fringe and flexible benefits, including life and disability insurance, transportation benefits, legal services, education assistance, charitable matching contributions, and employee discounts.
Our wide-ranging practice brings us into daily contact with the latest design, regulatory, legislative, and litigation developments, and helps us anticipate future trends. In a world where employee benefit plans face rapidly evolving legal and business challenges, our success at shaping the law through legislation, regulations, and agency guidance can be of particular value to our clients.
Representative Matters
- Representing Verizon Communications with respect to its pension plan’s $7.5 billion annuity purchase, one of the largest pension annuitization transactions in US history. After the transaction was announced, we successfully defending Verizon against an attempt by retirees to block the transaction in court.
- Assisting a Fortune 50 company in a ground-breaking transaction to add a guaranteed minimum withdrawal investment option to its $15 billion section 401(k) plan.
- Advising a public company on the addition of new investment options under a section 401(k) plan covering more than 250,000 participants, including advice on participant disclosure issues and other requirements of the section 404(c) safe harbor for participant-directed investments.
- Advising several large employers on significant changes to the design of retirement plans with billions of dollars in liabilities, including conversions to cash balance, pension equity, and floor-offset arrangements, and plan freezes and terminations.
- Developing innovative plan language to insulate plan sponsors from a wide range of litigation risks. For example, we have advised on fiduciary risks, risks related to drafting errors, and risks related to plan administration.
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