Employee Stock Ownership Plans (“ESOPs”) are powerful vehicles for business succession and employee ownership, but they operate under a tightly regulated framework. Because ESOPs are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), they cannot function like typical corporate buyers or sellers. A ...
Retirement plan committee meetings are not the most glamorous part of plan governance. Minutes can feel like an administrative afterthought—something to finalize quickly and file away. But in today’s retirement plan litigation environment, committee meeting minutes are one of the most powerful tools a plan sponsor has to manage ...
Many employers offer popular pre-tax benefits such as health insurance premiums, health FSAs, and dependent care FSAs, assuming that running deductions through payroll on a pre-tax basis is enough. However, one critical component to offering these plans that is often overlooked is that these benefits generally must be offered pursuant to a ...
I’m often asked to review the benefits and paid leave provisions in employer handbooks. Employers tend to focus first on retirement and health benefits, but significant compliance issues show up elsewhere. By far the most common multi‑state problem I see is an attempt to address state leave requirements with a one‑size‑fits‑all ...