Related Practices
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Covington represents plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, financial services companies, and fund managers on a wide range of issues involving the investment of employee benefit plan assets. We advise some of the country’s largest asset managers on legal, regulatory, and tax issues affecting plan investments, including:
- Fiduciary responsibilities and compliance;
- Structure and operation of collective trusts, partnerships, separate accounts, and other pooled investment arrangements;
- Prohibited transaction issues and exemptions;
- Participant-directed investments and investment disclosure;
- Trust agreements, investment management agreements, custody documents, and other investment-related agreements;
- Annuitization transactions and plan investments in insurance products;
- Unrelated business income tax;
- Professional fees and services for employee benefit plans;
- Private investment fund formation, secondary transactions, and plan investments in funds; and
- Development and implementation of novel investment products and strategies for employee benefit plans.
Covington lawyers have held important posts at most of the federal agencies that oversee employee benefit plans. We often testify at agency hearings, submit written comments, and seek individual rulings in order to establish policy positions favorable to our clients’ plan investment activities.
Covington has a superb record defending plan sponsors and fiduciaries in federal courts and contested agency proceedings. We have won important victories and negotiated favorable settlements throughout the United States in cases asserting investment-related claims under ERISA. We have persuaded federal agencies to abandon enforcement proceedings in which the agencies originally sought millions of dollars in damages and penalties.
Representative Matters
Defined Benefit Plans
- 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 defended Verizon against an attempt by retirees to block the transaction in court.
- Advising large pension funds on the structure and documentation of investments in swaps, index options, and other derivatives, including fiduciary and prohibited transaction issues related to Dodd-Frank clearing and margin requirements.
Defined Contribution Plans
- 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 and other requirements of the section 404(c) safe harbor for participant-directed investments.
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