Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits
The corporate lawyers at Nicola, Gudbranson & Cooper, LLC can help businesses and business owners in the Greater Cleveland area and throughout Ohio navigate the complex world of Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Law.
Innovative and diverse forms of compensation are becoming increasingly popular as part of employee compensation packages. Employee benefit plans must comply with a host of state and federal laws, such as ERISA for health plans and pension plans and the voluminous income tax code. When the employees in question are highly-paid executives, the benefit plans and compensation packages tend to get even more exotic and fall subject to additional state and federal regulation and government, public, and media scrutiny.
Companies which are publicly traded on the stock exchange must further comply with federal securities laws enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Public companies must file disclosures and other documents - such as the annual proxy statement and Summary Compensation Table - with the SEC regarding the compensation packages of high-ranking executives such as the CEO, CFO, and others.
NGC attorneys provide comprehensive legal assistance to their business and corporate clients, including in the following areas:
- Employment Agreements
- Deferred Compensation Agreements
- Supplemental Retirement Benefits
- Stock Option Arrangements
- Incentive Compensation Arrangements
- Assist in selecting the appropriate tax-effective beneficiary
- Assist in designing a distribution schedule to comply with the complicated IRS rules and regulations regarding required beginning dates and minimum required distributions
- Assist in setting up golden parachutes
- Assist in setting up golden handcuffs
- Assist in setting up salary continuation plans outside of the non-discriminative rules of ERISA
- Developing IRA's and 401(k) plans
- Advising in age-weighted plans and ESOPs
- Design plans or advise corporations in adopting prototype plans of third party providers in order to meet the specific needs of business clients
