Krieg DeVault LLP has a long and distinguished history of service to employers and employee benefit plans of all types and sizes. The professionals in this group are actively involved in all areas affecting employee benefits and executive compensation:

• Tax-qualified pension, profit sharing and "401(k)" plans;
• Leveraged and non-leveraged employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs);
• Welfare benefit plans, including self-funded and fully insured health plans, medical reimbursement plans, HRAs, HSAs and the like, adoption assistance plans, and education assistance plans;
• "Section 125" cafeteria plans, including premium payment plans and flexible spending account plans;
• Nonqualified deferred compensation plans;
• Severance pay plans;
• Voluntary Employee Benefit Associations (VEBAs);
• Equity and non-equity based executive compensation programs;
• Transactions that affect employee benefit plans such as mergers and acquisitions, partial and complete termination of plans, transfer of assets between plans and requalification of disqualified plans;
• Use of electronic technology in the administration of employee benefit plans;
• Correcting operational and documentation defects in tax-qualified plans;
• Plan audits initiated either by the Internal Revenue Service or the Department of Labor;
• Litigation in federal and state courts involving all types of employee benefit plans;
• Plans for tax-exempt and governmental organizations, including tax-sheltered annuity "403(b)" plans and "Section 457" plans;
• Multi-employer ("Taft-Hartley") pension and welfare funds;
• Development of new products and services; and
• Seminars for clients that cover significant recent developments affecting employers as well as important current topics.

Today we are assisting clients in the design and implementation of ESOPs, cash balance plans, safe harbor 401(k) plans, equity and non-equity-based plans, incentive compensation programs and "top-hat" plans for executives. We are also actively involved in developing solutions to increasing health care costs.

Our ESOP Practice

Mergers and Acquisitions

Significant employee benefit plan issues arise in virtually every acquisition transaction, including the disposition of the target's plans and the integration of target employees into the acquiring entity's plans. In many cases, the target's plans present compliance and other legal problems that must be resolved before the disposition of the plans can be completed. Members of our Practice Group take a direct, active role at the outset of each transaction with the goal of expeditiously identifying and resolving all employee benefit plan issues. The services provided by the Practice Group in the mergers and acquisitions area include conducting due diligence examinations of the target's benefit plans; providing advice and recommendations regarding the disposition of the target plans, including the timing thereof; drafting the employee benefit plan provisions of letters of intent and acquisition documents; and correcting operational and plan document defects in the target benefit plans and effecting the disposition of such plans. Our services also include the pursuit of claims against third-party service providers to target plans for the costs associated with correcting defects. The goal of the Practice Group in the mergers and acquisitions area is to facilitate a rapid and thorough disposition of the target's benefit plans with no disruption to the overall transaction.

Development of Executive Incentive and "Top-Hat" Plans

The significant decrease in the level of benefits accrued under qualified plans over the years, plus the crucial need of employers to attract and retain key management personnel, has made us particularly sensitive to the importance of executive compensation programs. We work closely with our clients to design, install and communicate equity and non-equity-based programs that not only replace benefits lost due to the tax law, but that also serve as an incentive for management to remain with the employer and share in the results of their work-related efforts.

Health Care Cost Containment

We advise our clients on a regular basis on methods that may curb the dramatic increase in health care costs. These methods include innovative programs that achieve savings for both the employer and its employees, such as cafeteria plans and flexible spending accounts, co-payments, employer-funded welfare benefit plans and employee assistance programs. We also take an active role in helping our clients respond to their emerging liabilities for unfunded retiree health benefits.

Plan Corrections

An important part of our practice continues to be the representation of employers whose qualified plans have encountered either documentation or operational difficulties. We regularly represent employers to fix these problems, which may be by self-correction, by filing with the Internal Revenue Service or Department of Labor under their plan correction programs or, as a last resort, by litigation. We also regularly carry out plan compliance audits of qualified plans to help clients identify problems with plan administration and correct those problems under one of the voluntary correction programs available with the Internal Revenue Service.

Investment of Plan Assets

We have extensive experience in advising our clients on the labor, tax and securities law ramifications of proposed investments of plan assets, whether it be in employer stock, real estate, pooled investment funds or other investment media.

ERISA Litigation and Potential Litigation

A vital and growing area of our employee benefits practice is the resolution of litigation and pre-litigation disputes involving employee benefit plans, the employers who sponsor the plans and the administrative and investment fiduciaries who perform fiduciary functions with respect to the plans. We represent both plaintiffs and defendants in this area of litigation, and our insights and experiences gained from handling claims both for and against plans enable us to be very effective in our representation of plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries and entities providing services to employee benefit plans. We are available for referrals in all areas of ERISA litigation, in both federal and state courts, including as local counsel. We strive to resolve ERISA disputes before they ripen into actual litigation; but where litigation has already commenced, we endeavor to bring the litigation to a satisfactory resolution as quickly as possible.

Multi-Employer Pension, Health and Welfare Plans

We are proud of the expert legal services we offer to employee benefit plans that are jointly sponsored by both labor and management pursuant to one or more collective bargaining agreements. The unique operation of multi-employer plans requires legal analysis and services that only a few law firms can provide. We regularly advise the joint boards of trustees of these plans in all areas, including plan design, drafting, qualification, administration, amendment, termination and audit by federal agencies. We also provide assistance in connection with the collection of the contributions owed to the fund, and where necessary the initiation of claims or litigation under Section 515 of ERISA to enforce the fund's rights to collect those contributions.

Professional Activities of Members of Practice Group

As part of our firm's commitment to clients, we prepare numerous articles for publication in both legal and non-legal media and are frequent speakers at national, state and local seminars and conferences. We also conduct seminars for our clients on current issues in the employee benefits area. Our attorneys are also members of the Indiana Pension Conference, the American Bar Association's Business Law Committee on Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Employee Owned S Corporations of America, the ESOP Association and the Central Indiana Chapter of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists.

Whatever tomorrow brings, whether it be issues involving the restoration of benefits lost under qualified plans due to changes in the tax law, retiree health benefits, regulation of the investment of plan assets, weathering regulatory audits, or other evolving issues, we have the ability, depth and expertise to allocate our resources to meet the changing needs of our clients and to adapt to the constant changes in the areas of employee benefits and executive compensation.