EMPLOYEE BENEFITS AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

The Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group is dedicated to providing timely and practical advice on all aspects of employee benefits and compensation planning. We regularly counsel clients with respect to tax, ERISA, and practical issues related to establishing, maintaining, administering, and terminating qualified and non-qualified employee benefit plans, health and welfare plans, severance plans, and executive compensation plans and arrangements (both equity and non-equity plans). We routinely assist clients in designing, implementing, and maintaining such plans, and we advise clients with respect to legal compliance and fiduciary issues. We advise clients with respect to employee benefits issues in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and other major business transactions. We also represent clients in employee benefits litigation, in obtaining tax and ERISA rulings, and in response to IRS and Department of Labor audits. Our goal is to use our extensive experience to provide practical, creative, and cost-effective solutions to the diverse and complex problems that our clients face in providing competitive employee benefits and compensation.


In addition, we maintain an IRS-approved volume submitter-defined contribution plan. This plan is specifically designed for small and medium-sized employers and can be used for 401(k), profit-sharing, and money purchase pension plans. Use of this volume submitter plan frequently results in reduced IRS fees and legal costs to implement and maintain a qualified plan.


Most states, including New York State, differentiate between business entities organized for the practice of a regulated profession and all other business entities. Scolaro Fetter Grizanti & McGough, P.C. has represented professional practitioners such as accountants, architects, attorneys, engineers, landscape architects, individually licensed physicians, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, podiatrists, physical and occupational therapists, and other healthcare professionals, their respective practices, and their professional organizations.

The attorneys practicing within the firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practices Group provide counsel to our clients for those legal issues surrounding the formation, acquisition, operation, maintenance, merger, dissolution, and termination of these business entities within the special context applicable to licensed professionals and their practices. In addition, the firm represents licensed professionals before peer review organizations and licensing boards.


● Benefits Structure – Legal Analysis

   ○ Plan drafting

   ○ Plan qualification

● Compensation packages

● ERISA litigation

● Distribution advice

● Fiduciary counseling and plan termination guidance

● Flexible benefits plans and health reform

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Benefits Structure – Legal Analysis

Members of the Employee Benefits Practice Group consult with clients regarding laws and regulations affecting benefit plans, including tax, labor and employment (ADEA, EEOC, ADA, FMLA), ERISA, and state prevailing wage laws.


Plan Drafting

Plans are drafted to meet the most recent federal and state requirements and include pension, profit sharing, thrift, 401(k), and savings plans; related trust agreements; life, accident, and disability plans; flexible benefits and cafeteria plans; employee stock ownership plans; simplified employee pension plans (SEPs); required welfare plan documents; Section 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans; and Section 457 deferred compensation plans. Many of the firm’s plans are pre-approved by the IRS for faster processing.


Plan Qualification

We handle the complete tax qualification filing of a retirement plan and prepare the required summary plan description. We also advise on compliance with ERISA reporting and disclosure requirements and preparation of IRS private letter ruling requests.


Compensation Packages

Compensation packages for key executives, including non-qualified deferred compensation, stock option plans, phantom stock plans, and insurance plans, are designed by the Employee Benefits Practice Group lawyers in coordination with the individual estate plan of the executive.


Distribution Advice

Practice Group Members advise employers and employees on the taxation of plan distributions and coordinate the filings and compliance with all DOL, IRS, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation requirements.


ERISA Litigation

The Employee Benefits Practice Group, working with the firm’s Litigation Department, regularly assists clients in bringing or defending ERISA litigation and advises clients on fiduciary responsibilities, litigation risks, and administrative enforcement activities.


Fiduciary Counseling and Plan Termination Guidance

Employers, plan trustees, and others are counseled regarding fiduciary responsibility, transactions, unrelated business income, mergers, and transfers of plan assets, prohibited transactions, and multi-employer plan issues, including withdrawal liability.


Flexible Benefits Plans and Health Reform

We design flexible benefits and cafeteria plans, including premium-only plans, dependent care assistance, and medical reimbursement account plans, and we help clients administer these plans.


Plan Administration Advice

We help clients interpret and administer plans, benefits, and insurance contracts.


Other Benefits Advice

Our benefits lawyers provide consultation regarding individual retirement accounts (IRAs), health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs), COBRA health plan continuation coverage compliance, Taft-Hartley Plans, workers’ compensation, employment taxes, unemployment compensation, Social Security, and integration of retirement plan benefits. In addition, our employee benefits lawyers work with other departments in the firm on benefits-related matters, such as the sale or purchase of business with single or multi-employer pension plans, labor negotiations regarding fringe benefits, employment agreements, and estate or dissolution planning for pension benefits.

ATTORNEY

For more information on our firm and its Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group, please contact the following attorney:

● Stewart M. McGough | Biography


The team at Scolaro Fetter Grizanti & McGough, P.C. offers the trusted business attorney and acquisition attorney you can count on to help resolve issues involving employee benefits and compensation planning. We are here to help business owners in Syracuse, NY and nearby cities like Rome, NY; Utica, NY; Watertown, NY; and Rochester, NY. Schedule a consultation with a business attorney to help you plan for how your company wants to handle employee benefits and executive compensation. As an acquisition attorney, we can provide assistance with the purchase of a new business that will require answers to questions about how new employees will be compensated and how benefits will be provided. Trust our expertise as an acquisition attorney in Syracuse, NY and throughout New York State to help you plan for the sale or acquisition of a business. If you need a business attorney or estate planning lawyer in Syracuse, NY, you’ll find what you’re looking for from Scolaro Fetter Grizanti & McGough, P.C. Contact or visit our office today!

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