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QUALIFIED MEDICAL CHILD SUPPORT ORDERS
HIPAA PRIVACY COMPLIANCE
INSTITUTIONAL
INVESTMENT SERVICES
Qualified
Retirement Plans
We
offer a complete line of employee benefits services for employers
who maintain qualified retirement plans (such as 401(k) plans, profit
sharing plans, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and defined
benefit plans.) Our services including providing guidance in
implementing plans, including plan design consulting, drafting plan
documents and employee communications materials, and submitting
those documents to the IRS and other governmental agencies.
We also aid employers with ongoing plan administration by
interpreting plan language and government regulations, performing
compliance reviews, providing advice for correcting plan defects
and resolving questions regarding benefit planning and plan administration.
We will perform vendor searches and help with all documentation
necessary for plan conversions.
We also help employers with the retirement plan issues in
mergers and acquisitions and plan terminations.
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Health and Welfare Plans
We draft and review health and
welfare plan and trust documents of all types.
We regularly assist clients in developing and documenting
flexible benefits programs (cafeteria plans), and in keeping those
programs in compliance with the law.
We assist our clients with regulatory obligations and represent
them before government agencies on these matters.
We counsel our clients as to their obligations under the
health continuation coverage rules under the Consolidated Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (COBRA) and their obligations
under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
We apply on behalf of our clients for tax-exempt status as
Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs).
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Non
Qualified Plans
We assist clients in preparing
supplemental executive retirement plans, including pension and 401(k)
benefit restoration plans. We
also work with long-term incentive plans, statutory and nonqualified
stock option plans, incentive stock options (ISOs), 403(b) plans,
457(f) plans and various other types of non-qualified deferred compensation
arrangements.
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Qualified
Domestic Relations Orders and Qualified Medical Child Support Orders
We provide total QDRO
and QMCSO management services for qualified plans and employer-sponsors.
We develop QDRO and QMCSO procedures, draft manuals and work
with clients to develop model QDROs and model response letters for
each of their plans. In addition, we administer QDROs and QMCSOs from initial notification
of a pending order through final approval, providing legal review
and preparing response letters. The administration of QDROs and
QMCSOs is often a complex and litigious task. Benefits
Law Group’s QDRO services alleviate our clients’ administrative
burdens and potential liability.
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Government
Plans
We provide legal consulting services
to governmental entities in Georgia who sponsor pension plans, 401(a)
plans, 457(b) plans and 403(b) plans.
We have extensive experience with the issues unique to government
plans including the state laws applicable to plan investments and
fiduciary conduct.
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Employee
Benefits Litigation and Dispute Resolution
We
handle all forms of employee benefits disputes, including ERISA
litigation for employers. We
assist our clients through the claims procedure process required
by ERISA and provide fiduciary counseling.
In addition, we provide internal audits to help our clients
avoid litigation through proper plan drafting and administration.
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Electronic
Plan Administration
We
provide legal counseling throughout the transition to paperless
administration of employee benefit plans.
We review electronic plan communications and systems to reduce
exposure to litigation and ensure compliance with the law.
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Fiduciary
Counseling
We are dedicated to educating plan
fiduciaries of their duties and responsibilities in order to prevent
litigation and plan disqualification.
We offer complete claims resolution services, guidance on
plan administration, compliance audits, communications audits, fiduciary
manuals and seminars. These
services are a response to our clients’ concerns regarding the rising
costs associated with plan administration and benefits litigation,
and employee mistrust of plan administration.
We believe these services enhance the value of employee benefits
by reducing confusion and suspicion about plan administration and
maximizing cost-saving measures.
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Prohibited
Transactions
We assist employers and
plan service providers in analyzing whether transactions and investment
arrangements implicate ERISA’s broad prohibited transaction rules,
and in structuring arrangements to avoid violating these provisions. We work with clients in negotiating with the
Department of Labor for prohibited transaction exemptions where
appropriate and in audit situations.
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HIPAA
Privacy Compliance
We provide legal consulting services
to employer sponsors of health and disability plans, health care
providers, third party administrators, health and disability insurance
companies, and other companies with access to protected health information
that may be subject to sweeping privacy regulations issued under
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
We help these companies understand the impact of these regulations
and prepare for compliance. Our
services include analysis, education, audit, recommendation, drafting,
review and training.
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Institutional
Investment Services
Our work with institutional clients,
who provide investment management and other related services to
ERISA plans, has given us extensive experience with the ERISA, tax,
securities and other issues relating to common and collective trust
funds, brokerage services provided to ERISA plans, the creation
of operating companies, the collection of fees for these services
and numerous other issues that arise from the investment of plan
assets.
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