Legal Services

As a result of the overlapping jurisdictions of the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, employee benefits is one of the most technical and heavily regulated fields of law. Therefore, at times, it can be a challenge just to determine whether legal services are required and, if so, the extent to which they may be necessary. In an effort to assist potential clients in navigating this confusing web of rules and regulations, the Law Offices of Geoffrey M. Strunk, LLC (“Firm”) provides all prospective clients with a free initial phone consultation in order to help assess the need for legal services.

As far as the specific legal services provided, the Firm supplies a full range of employee benefit legal services. This includes, but is not limited to, Compliance Consulting Services; Fiduciary Consulting; Plan Design and Drafting; Corporate Transactions; Complex Ownership Structures; Executive Compensation Services and Health and Welfare Benefit Matters.

COMPLIANCE CONSULTING SERVICES

The Firm often consults on compliance issues in order to attempt to prevent the occurrence of compliance failures. However, in those frequent instances where compliance failures have already occurred, the Firm assists with the resolution of the resulting violations and defects often through the negotiation of the correction of such failures with the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor.

ERISA Legal Services

The Law Offices of Geoffrey M. Strunk, LLC, a law firm specializing in employee benefits. Extensive knowledge, experience and professionalism.

The Firm directly represents and defends Plan Sponsors and Plan Fiduciaries in the context of retirement plan inquiries, audits and investigations performed by the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and/or the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. When appropriate, the Firm utilizes the many voluntary compliance correction programs established by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor in order to resolve compliance failures. In this regard, the Firm routinely facilitates compliance correction through programs such as the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”) (including the Voluntary Correction Program (“VCP”), the Self Correction Program (“SCP”) and Audit CAP); the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (“VFCP”) and the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program (“DFVC”). The Firm has also been very successful at reducing or abating government penalties that are assessed in connection with late-filed Forms 5500.
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FIDUCIARY CONSULTING

The Firm assists many clients to understand and satisfy their fiduciary responsibilities. Often, this form of representation involves analyzing complex relationships in order to detect potential “prohibited transactions” under the Internal Revenue Code and / or ERISA. However, such representation extends to assistance with the 408(b)(2) and 404a-5 “fee disclosure” notification requirements; fiduciary indemnification issues; organizing / attending fiduciary meetings; review / certification of fiduciary processes and resolving various other fiduciary duty issues.

When appropriate, the Firm utilizes the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (“VFCP”) as sponsored by the Department of Labor to voluntarily correct fiduciary breaches under ERISA.
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PLAN DESIGN AND DRAFTING

The Firm designs and drafts all forms of retirement plans with a general focus on tax-qualified and non-qualified defined contribution retirement plans. This includes the drafting as well as the periodic updating / revision of fully customized, “individually designed” plans and the employment of both Prototype and Volume Submitter “pre-approved” plan documents. Mr. Strunk has significant experience with “Government Plans” and “Multiple Employer Plans” as well as all forms of non-qualified plans.

In addition to the design and drafting of such plan documents, the Firm deals with the compliance and maintenance aspects of such plans before the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor. This area of work includes services such as the submission of plans and plan amendments to the Internal Revenue Service in order to obtain favorable approval of their tax-qualified status.
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CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS

The Firm often consults on retirement plan issues relating to corporate transactions such as plan mergers, plan spin-offs, transfers of plan assets and plan terminations. Careful and informed planning before the occurrence of any such transaction can allow for an orderly transition with the result being the anticipated and fully understood impact on each party to the transaction’s retirement benefit structure. Prudent and prospective evaluation of these matters is paramount as unintended consequences can be both costly and complicated.
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COMPLEX OWNERSHIP STRUCTURES

The Firm also consults and provides guidance on complex ownership structures as they relate to the potential or actual creation of “related employers” such as “controlled groups” and “affiliated service groups”. Prospective planning is critical in this context in order to avoid the potentially expensive consequences of failing to recognize the existence (or lack thereof) of a related employer group. However, in those circumstances where a plan has not been properly operated in accordance with the status of its sponsor as either a single or related employer, the Firm can assist with both the proper plan design to avoid future complications and the resolution of previously occurring compliance concerns.
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EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION SERVICES

In the executive compensation arena, the Firm designs and drafts “non-qualified deferred compensation” arrangements for the benefit of “for-profit”, “not-for-profit” and governmental plan sponsors. These plans are typically unfunded deferred compensation “top-hat” plans under section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code as well as “eligible non-qualified deferred compensation” plans under section 457(b) of the Internal Revenue Code and “ineligible non-qualified deferred compensation” plans under section 457(f) of the Internal Revenue Code.
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HEALTH AND WELFARE BENEFIT MATTERS

With respect to health and welfare plans, the Firm designs and drafts Section 125 (“Cafeteria” or “Flexible Benefit”) Plans. In addition, the Firm consults on certain related employee benefit matters.
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