Timothy P. Brechtel

Employee benefits are a crucial element in successfully competing for talent and retaining employees. Jones Walker’s experienced employee benefits team provides a wide range of representation and advice in connection with the design, preparation, implementation, and administration of the entire spectrum of retirement and deferred compensation plans, including:

401(k) and Profit-Sharing Plans
Our employee benefits team has extensive experience with all types of 401(k) plan designs, including plans with “safe harbor,” automatic enrollment, and cross-tested profit-sharing features. We regularly work with clients to help them comply with a complicated regulatory environment. We also counsel plan fiduciaries striving to act in the best interest of plan participants in all aspects of plan operations, including regular advice and fiduciary training for plan committees. We help clients comply with law and regulatory changes, including the CARES Act and the SECURE and SECURE 2.0 Acts. Additionally, we work with our securities lawyers to coordinate Securities and Exchange Commission reporting for plans that include employer securities.

Pension Plans
We represent employers that have active, frozen, and terminating defined benefit pension programs in all phases of the plan life cycle. We assist employers that are implementing new defined benefit programs, particularly cash balance and hybrid plans, often replacing traditional defined benefit programs.

403(b) Plans
We assist nonprofit employers with qualified savings plans that help them mimic the benefits available to for-profit employees under 401(k) plans, and we help such clients avoid the surprises and pitfalls that sometimes come with sponsorship of plans for nonprofit employers.

Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)
We assist clients with establishing ESOPs of all types, including leveraged ESOP transactions with internal or external borrowing and merger and acquisition transactions involving companies wholly or partially owned by ESOPs. We have helped numerous clients evaluate whether an ESOP is suitable for their company, and we have designed and drafted ESOPs and related documents and assisted with the implementation of ESOPs for both public and private companies. Our ESOP clients range from small employers and Subchapter S corporations to large public companies.

Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans and Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (SERPs)
We assist employers looking to provide retirement benefits to management employees above and beyond the avenues available through tax-qualified retirement plans. We advise employers and executives regarding the full landscape of nonqualified plans, including compliance and corrections under IRS programs that enable executives to reduce or eliminate penalties when there are compliance gaps.

457(b) and 457(f) Plans
We advise nonprofit employers regarding supplemental retirement and deferred compensation plans under Internal Revenue Code section 457, including the complicated compliance burdens faced by plans subject to Code sections 457(f) and 409A.

Our team works closely with our employment, securities, and executive compensation attorneys to help employers recruit and retain talent in key executive positions, including drafting and negotiating compensation packages, employment agreements, and change in control provisions.

Our employee benefits team works closely with our trial attorneys in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and employee benefits litigation, including the defense of benefits claims and fiduciary litigation. We work with corporate counsel in negotiating benefits provisions in M&A and lending transactions, conduct due diligence of benefits plans and arrangements, and assist with benefits transition and integration issues.

We prepare and review plan documents, summary plan descriptions, and plan communications; apply for IRS determination letters; assist plan sponsors in correcting plan defects; assist plan sponsors with US Department of Labor, IRS, and annual CPA audits; and counsel employers on all aspects of plan administration, including benefits plan claims and appeals.

In addition to retirement and compensation plans, we counsel clients on the full spectrum of health, welfare, and fringe benefit plans, including:

• Group Health Plans
• Flexible Benefit (Cafeteria) Plans
• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
• Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs)
• Medical Expense Reimbursement Plans (MERPs)
• Wellness Incentive Plans
• Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements (MEWAs)
• Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association Plans (VEBAs)
• Severance Plans
• Educational Assistance Plans
• Student Debt Repayment Arrangements
• Employee Assistance Plans (EAPs)
• Pretax Parking and Transportation Plans

We assist clients with state and federal income tax reporting and withholding obligations that arise with all types of benefits plans, including Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting (Forms 1094/1095), income tax reporting and withholding, and qualified and nonqualified retirement and pension plan reporting and withholding.

Our team works closely with our state and local tax attorneys and labor attorneys when employers open offices or hire remote workers and telecommuters located in other states, to help them comply with federal, state, and local laws applicable to employees working in such states. We assist employers and executives when executives move to or retire in a new state. We also advise on the federal and state laws regarding the taxation of deferred compensation earned while working in other states.

We advise clients regarding many related laws and issues, including the ACA, Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (including nonquantitative treatment limitation (NQTL) issues), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

We also assist employers and executives with individual employee issues such as foreign nationals’ participation in US employer plans; secondment of US employees to overseas locations; estate planning for retirement distributions; individual retirement account (IRA), Roth IRA, and Simplified Employee Pension-IRA (SERP-IRA) issues; transition to Medicare; and Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) rules.