Employee Benefits

Representing industry leaders, Fortune 100 companies and start-ups, our clients include public companies and closely held businesses of all sizes. The team’s experience ranges from advising banks, insurers, third-party administrators and other benefit plan service providers to counseling tax-exempt organizations, including hospitals, trade associations and educational institutions.

How We Help

McGuireWoods handles employee benefits and compensation matters, including:

• executive employment, retention, change in control and severance agreements;
• equity, derivative equity, and short-term and long-term incentive compensation programs;
• executive retirement and fringe benefits;
• proxy and related executive compensation disclosures;
• tax-qualified retirement plans: 401(k), pensions, and traditional and cash-balance plans;
• nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements;
• employee stock ownership plans;
• health and welfare programs: Wrap and Cafeteria plans, Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association plans and all component health arrangements;
• severance arrangements; and
• fiduciary education and advice.

Representative Experience

• American energy company on all manner of employee benefits matters, including its qualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, fiduciary matters, executive agreements, incentive plans and nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements;
• U.S. subsidiaries of a German automotive technology, parts and tire producer with over 35,000 U.S. employees on matters involving company-sponsored benefit plans, including plan design, compliance, funding, integration of acquired entities and legal and regulatory developments;
• Large financial institution in engagements with key trade groups — such as Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), Bank Policy Institute and the Chamber of Commerce — on developing executive compensation regulation, novel pension plan de-risking strategy involving the spin-out and termination of a portion of its pension plan (total asset value of more than $20 billion) coupled with the rollover of pension plan surplus funds to fund retirement benefits under the institution’s 401(k) plan;
• Retirement plan fiduciary committee for a large financial services company in of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) fiduciary matters related to its more than $40 billion 401(k) plan, one of the largest in the world;
• Architectural services company on Code Section 1042 deferred tax rollover rules, ESOP plan and trust design and corollary agreements in its roughly $40 million sale of stock by the company’s current owners to an ESOP;
• Multinational industrial company on proxy statement disclosures, equity compensation matters, corporate aircraft use, pension plan, and 401(k) plan documentary and operational compliance matters;
• Multinational privately held materials company on ERISA fiduciary matters, 401(k) plan compliance, employee benefits governance structure implementation and termination of a defined benefit pension plan coupled with the implementation of defined contribution (qualified and nonqualified) replacement benefits; and
• Leading multinational publicly traded beverage company on proxy disclosures, equity program matters, director compensation and nonqualified deferred compensation plan compliance matters.