Kevin practices ERISA and employee benefits with an emphasis on qualified retirement plans, nonqualified deferred compensation, and severance plans/arrangements. He distills complex and archaic employee benefits problems into practical, useful advice that leads to best-in-class solutions for clients.
The majority of Kevin’s practice focuses on executive compensation. He advises public and private employers (tax-exempt and for-profit) on nonqualified deferred compensation, excess plans, top hat plans, change in control arrangements, short and long-term and retention bonus plans/arrangements to comply with ERISA and Code Sections 83, 162(m), 280G, 409A, 457, 4960, and 4999. Kevin has substantial experience with Code Section 409A’s document and operational corrections programs. Kevin prepares equity plan documents and awards and associated participant communications, and advises on tax and employment aspects of incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units and performance-based awards.
Kevin also specializes in the benefit and compensation aspects of employee severance plans/arrangements, early voluntary retirement windows, and reductions-in-force. He advises on plan design and structure, ERISA implications (including ERISA coverage and pension plan avoidance), and Code Section 409A (and 457(f)) compliance or avoidance for such plans/arrangements.
Kevin advises clients on matters that maintain retirement plan qualification, avoid maladministration, and correct document and operational failures. He prepares retirement plan correction submissions under the IRS’s EPCRS program and the DOL’s VFCP and DFVCP programs, and assists clients with IRS and DOL audits advocating on their behalf. He has significant experience with employee benefits in corporation transactions, including, performing pre-closing due diligence, drafting employee benefit portions of asset and stock purchase agreements, and addressing post-transaction integration issues, including retirement plan mergers, terminations, and spin-offs. He also leverages his significant experience with annual retirement coverage and nondiscrimination testing to eliminate plan inefficiencies while maximizing client value in maintaining retirement plans.
