Practice Areas

Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman PLC: Cedar Rapids

115 3rd Street SE, Suite 1200
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401-1266

Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman PLC provides counseling regarding many areas of pension, profit sharing and other ERISA-based retirement plans. The practice group also works with our clients and their other consultants in the design, drafting and installation of other employee benefit and executive compensation plans – including fringe benefit plans, cafeteria plans, medical expense reimbursement plans, health and other insurance-based plans and non-qualified deferred compensation plans. This work often includes assisting business clients in developing incentive-oriented, often equity-based compensation plans for management and executive employees. These include gain-sharing plans, phantom stock plans, cash and deferred profit sharing bonus plans, stock option and stock bonus plans.

In addition to design, drafting and implementation of such plans, the employee benefits group offers counseling in the following specific areas:

• Reviewing plan documents and employer policies and patterns of practice for legal compliance and providing ancillary assistance in filing required government reports
• Advising and educating executives, plan trustees, compensation committees and administrators on matters related to general plan administrative compliance
• Counseling on fiduciary obligations and liabilities
• Plan restructuring in connection with corporate transactions, including plan mergers, spin-offs and termination
• Counseling plan sponsors and bankruptcy trustees about benefit plan alternatives compliance in bankruptcy, receiverships, and other sponsor insolvency situations.
• Counseling on legislative issues and the effects of new statutory and regulatory developments
• Representation of our clients before pension and related agencies such as the IRS, the Department of Labor, and other regulators in connection with enforcement actions or compliance audits.
• Consulting cooperatively with employers other benefit plan advisors plans including accountants, benefit plan consultants, trust departments, insurance carriers (and agents and brokers), investment advisers, actuaries, third-party plan administrators and others.
• Consulting individuals regarding their 401k plans, IRAs and other retirement plans, both regarding their beneficiary designations and their payout options.

In many situations the group provides interdisciplinary counsel – in cooperation with the firm’s employment and health law groups - regarding severance plans, retirement buy-out plans, executive employment contracts, and matters pertaining to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Such joint efforts also often involve matters related to ERISA litigation issues as well as collective bargaining agreements and union contract benefit issues.