Institutional trustees and employee benefits plan fiduciaries often must resolve complicated ERISA fiduciary issues and ensure that they are operating within the confines of complex laws.

Because of our extensive experience in this field, institutional trustees and employee benefits plan fiduciaries often ask us to serve as counsel. In this context, we provide institutions with advice that helps to ensure they are operating within the confines of complex laws governing this area. We regularly advise employers regarding the structuring of transactions to avoid prohibited transaction penalties and advise employers regarding what expenses can be paid with plan assets.

Together, we have:

• Designed a joint venture vehicle allowing a pension plan sponsored by a Fortune 200 company to enter an agreement to develop and manage a real estate development project with our client, a major U.S. manufacturer of computer equipment
• Represented a major institutional investment manager and trustee for tax-qualified retirement plans; handled various matters, including prohibited transaction issues associated with pass-through of expenses of common trust funds to participating plans
• Represented an insurance company and certain of its affiliates during the complete restructuring and transfer of trust operations between affiliates
• Counseled the lender and trustee of an ESOP in resolving a situation in which the unallocated shares of the ESOP were not pledged as collateral for the ESOP loan and in dealing with the potential repayment of the loan when the shares were sold
• Represented the fiduciary of a $500 million common trust fund, primarily invested in real estate, when litigation arose over the liquidity of the funds