Advisory Services

BLG counsels plan sponsors and fiduciaries on a wide range of employee benefits and compensation matters, including:

Qualified Retirement Plans: BLG advises on issues arising in the sponsorship and administration of tax-qualified retirement plans, including profit sharing and stock bonus plans, 401(k) plans, and traditional and hybrid (e.g., cash balance) pension plans.

ERISA Fiduciary Governance and Asset Management: BLG helps clients optimize their fiduciary structures, develop and maintain committee charters and investment policy statements, and oversee the management of assets covering the full range of traditional and alternative investments.

Executive Compensation: BLG assists with the design, implementation, and operations of bonus and incentive plans, nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements, equity and synthetic equity programs (e.g., options, stock appreciation plans, phantom equity, etc.), and individual and group severance benefit plans.

Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs): BLG has significant experience advising and representing companies, trustees and lenders on the unique issues applicable to ESOPs, in the context of transactions (formations, releveraging, market sales), government audits, and ongoing operations.

Pension Plan De-Risking and Terminations: BLG assists plan sponsors and fiduciaries develop and implement pension de-risking strategies such as lump sum window programs and annuity lift-outs, and terminating pension plans.

Health and Welfare Plans: BLG regularly advises on a wide range of issues concerning employer-sponsored health and disability plans, HSAs, HRAs, and compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Vendor Contracts: BLG has extensive experience negotiating agreements for administrative, trustee/custodial, and investment advisory/management services.

Government Relations: BLG advocates client positions regarding legislative and regulatory initiatives.

 

Transaction Services

BLG assists clients, directly and through full-service law firms, on benefits and compensation issues arising in transactions for public and private companies, commercial lenders, institutional trustees, management groups, and executives.

M & A Support: BLG provides seamless subject matter support in M&A/divestiture transactions to law firms that do not have resident employee benefits and executive compensation expertise. For any M&A project, BLG exercises sound judgment in focusing only on material issues, a perspective enhanced by its extensive experience assisting underwriters evaluate risk for purposes of Representations & Warranties insurance.

Discrete Projects: BLG assists with discrete projects, such as focused reviews of employment agreements, credit agreements, Section 409A analysis, Section 280G golden parachute analysis, and the design and maintenance of equity and other incentive plans.

Conflict Situations: BLG represents individual executives and management groups where corporate counsel is disqualified due to conflicts of interest.