Proskauer Benefits Brief: Legal Insight on Compensation & Benefits

Unfortunately, disaster scenarios have become all too common and can cause significant disruption for employers, employees and their affected family members. In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, Paul Hamburger, co-chair of Proskauer’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group, explores the unique issues that employers must consider when preparing their employee benefits disaster relief programs.

In this episode of the Proskauer Benefits Brief, Paul Hamburger, co-chair of Proskauer’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group, and associate Katrina McCann discuss the top ten things employers need to know to survive an IRS audit. Although plans can be audited at any time, the IRS is focused on Employee Plans Team Audits (EPTA), which deal with large plans that cover 2,500 or more participants. Even though the number of EPTA plans is fewer than 1%, the IRS has found that these plans cover approximately 60% of all participants and nearly 70% of all plan assets. So, whether you are subject to an EPTA audit, a random audit of a smaller plan, or an issue-specific audit, be sure to listen and understand how these tips can help you survive the IRS audit process.

In this episode of the Proskauer Benefits Brief, senior counsel Anthony Cacace and partner Robert Projansky discuss how severance plans can be subject to ERISA. We examine the key advantages of having severance pay arrangements covered by ERISA and what employers can do to design plans that comply with the substantive and procedural requirements of ERISA, but also maximize the likelihood of benefitting from ERISA coverage. Whether a severance plan or arrangement is governed by ERISA is a rather fact-intensive analysis, so be sure to tune in for how those facts and circumstances can give rise to an ERISA plan.