Protecting Plan Assets, Maximizing Member Benefits
Employee benefit plan trustees manage billions in worker benefits while navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Our specialized expertise in employee benefit law provides the guidance and protection your plan needs to thrive.
Protecting Plan Assets, Maximizing Member Benefits
Billions in Assets
IN OUR CLIENTS' BENEFIT FUNDS
Multi-Industry
Trustee representation
ERISA-Focused
Specialized regulatory knowledge
Employee benefit plan trustees manage billions in worker benefits while navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Every decision you make—from investment oversight to vendor selection—carries significant fiduciary responsibility and directly impacts the financial security of thousands of participants and their families. Our specialized expertise in employee benefit law provides the guidance and protection your plan needs to thrive in this demanding environment.
Collectively, we have decades of experience helping clients across multiple industries navigate complex regulations, recover delinquent contributions, and implement governance structures that protect both plan assets and fiduciary interests. Our clients maintain compliance with ERISA requirements, maximize benefit security for participants, and achieve sustainable funding solutions because we combine extensive regulatory knowledge with practical plan-administration experience.
Our attorneys literally wrote the book on ERISA collections, bringing nationally recognized expertise to the recovery of delinquent contributions and enforcement of plan obligations.
Our plans consistently outperform industry benchmarks in key areas: more efficient contribution collection, reduced fiduciary liability exposure, streamlined regulatory compliance, and enhanced benefit security. We understand that every dollar recovered, every audit successfully completed, and every governance improvement directly impacts the retirement security and healthcare access of working families.
Comprehensive Employee Benefits Services
Our specialized approach addresses every aspect of employee benefit law and plan administration, ensuring that your plan operates efficiently while your participants receive maximum benefit security.
Trust agreements, plan documents, and summary plan descriptions.
We draft comprehensive trust agreements, plan documents, summary plan descriptions, and related plan materials to address ERISA requirements and establish clear standards for benefit administration. We work with the trustees and administrators to keep plan documentation current while allowing appropriate flexibility in plan design and administration.
Questions about plan documentation? Speak with our team.
Trust agreements, plan documents, and summary plan descriptions.
We draft comprehensive trust agreements, plan documents, summary plan descriptions, and related plan materials to address ERISA requirements and establish clear standards for benefit administration. We work with the trustees and administrators to keep plan documentation current while allowing appropriate flexibility in plan design and administration.
Fiduciary Governance
ERISA obligations and oversight.
We counsel trustees and other plan fiduciaries on their duties and obligations under ERISA, helping them navigate complex decision-making processes consistent with their fiduciary duties. Our guidance includes investment oversight, plan administration, participant communications, conflicts of interest, prohibited transactions and compliance with the prudent-expert standard.
Contribution Collection
Recovering delinquent employer contributions.
We implement aggressive collection procedures to recover delinquent employer contributions, including payroll audits, demand letters, litigation, and post-judgment recovery. Our approach emphasizes prompt and efficient recovery of amounts owed to the plan while protecting plan assets and enforcing signatory employers’ contribution obligations.
MKR has a “Beyond the Signatory Employer” program designed to maximize potential collection from non-signatory companies. This program utilizes mechanic liens, wage and surety bonds, performance bonds, FOIA requests for certified payroll and contract information. In addition, MKR has a streamlined version of discovery designed to confirm whether any non-signatory employer is liable under a single employer or alter ego theory. Finally, we utilize discovery to determine whether there is personal liability of owners or other individuals under a pierce the corporate veil or under the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act.
HIPAA Compliance
Privacy policies, training, and breach procedures.
We advise health plans on HIPAA privacy and security compliance and develop policies and procedures designed to protect participants’ health information while permitting appropriate plan administration. Our work includes drafting privacy and cybersecurity policies, workforce training, breach analysis and response procedures, business associate agreements, and guidance regarding the use and disclosure of protected health information.
Appeals Procedures
Fair, efficient processes for denied benefit claims.
We advise plans on the development and administration of claims and appeals procedures that comply with ERISA and applicable federal requirements while protecting plan assets from improper payments. We assist with claim and appeal determinations, procedural compliance, independent medical reviews when appropriate, and documentation of the administrative record. We also represent plans in litigation arising from benefit claims and appeals.
Withdrawal Liability
Assessments, calculations, and collection.
We advise multiemployer pension plans on all aspects of withdrawal liability, including identifying withdrawals, issuing assessments and payment demands, responding to requests for review, handling arbitration hearings and briefing, negotiating settlements and pursuing collection and enforcement actions.
Plan Mergers
Consolidating benefit plans.
We advise benefit plans on mergers and consolidations, addressing fiduciary, regulatory, financial and governance considerations while protecting participant benefits. Our work includes due diligence, coordination of merger studies with actuaries and other plan professionals, drafting and negotiating merger agreements, regulatory filings and approvals, and transition planning.
Regulatory Audits
DOL investigations and IRS examinations.
We represent employee benefit plans in Department of Labor investigations and IRS examinations and proceedings. We assist with document production, fiduciary and other witness preparation, responses to agency inquiries, and negotiation of resolution agreements when appropriate.
Subrogation
Enforcing reimbursement rights to recover plan assets.
We represent ERISA health and welfare plans in enforcing their subrogation and reimbursement rights involving medical and disability benefits paid on behalf of participants and beneficiaries who have rights of recovery against third parties, including recoveries arising from personal injury claims and workers’ compensation benefits. We assist the plan administrators with every aspect of the process, from identifying potential third-party recoveries to negotiating settlements and litigating claims, with a focus on protecting plan assets and enforcing the plan’s contractual rights.
The MKR Advantage
Why trustees choose us
Deep ERISA Expertise
Decades of combined experience navigating complex employee benefits regulations across multiple industries.
Fiduciary Protection
Governance structures and counsel designed to protect both plan assets and the trustees who steward them.
Practical Administration
We combine regulatory knowledge with hands-on plan-administration experience to deliver workable solutions.
Frequently Asked
Employee benefits questions, answered
Practical guidance for trustees and plan fiduciaries.
What is ERISA and why does it matter for our plan?
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is the federal law governing most private-sector employee benefit plans. It sets fiduciary duties, reporting and disclosure requirements, and claims procedures. Trustees who fail to comply can face personal liability, so understanding ERISA is essential to protecting both the plan and its fiduciaries.
What are a trustee's primary fiduciary duties?
Trustees must act solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries, with the care, skill, and diligence of a prudent expert. That includes following plan documents, diversifying investments, paying only reasonable plan expenses, and avoiding prohibited transactions and conflicts of interest.
How do we collect delinquent employer contributions?
ERISA provides multiemployer plans with important remedies for collecting delinquent contributions. Depending on the circumstances, recoveries may include unpaid contributions, interest, liquidated damages, and attorneys’ and auditors’ fees. We use demand letters, payroll audits, negotiated settlements and litigation when necessary to maximize recovery and enforce signatory employers’ obligations. We also assist with a comprehensive mechanics’ lien and bond program to recover delinquent contributions.
What happens during a Department of Labor audit?
The DOL typically requests plan documents, financial records, and meeting minutes, then interviews fiduciaries and service providers. We guide administrators and trustees through document production, prepare witnesses, and negotiate with investigators to minimize disruption and resolve any issues identified during the investigation.
How is withdrawal liability calculated and assessed?
When a contributing employer experiences a complete or partial withdrawal from a multiemployer pension plan, ERISA requires the plan to assess the employer’s share of unfunded vested benefits. Calculations depend on the plan’s allocation method, actuarial assumptions, and the employer’s contribution history. We work with administrators and actuaries to provide the assessments and collect the withdrawal liability.
Can trustees be held personally liable for plan losses?
Yes. ERISA fiduciaries may be personally liable for losses to the plan resulting from breaches of their fiduciary duties and may be subject to other equitable or remedial relief. Strong governance procedures, careful documentation, prudent reliance on qualified professionals, and fiduciary liability insurance can help manage fiduciary risk.
Talk to Our Benefits Team
Reach out today with your employee benefits concerns.
