Firm News
May 5, 2014
Seyfarth Shaw Launches Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center
CHICAGO (May 5, 2014) — Seyfarth Shaw is pleased to announce the creation of the Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center. The Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center offers clients a suite of administrative services for defined contribution and defined benefit tax-qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, as well as all types of health and welfare benefit plans. These fundamental services, common to all employee benefit plans, are often time-intensive and can burden corporate employee benefits staff. Seyfarth’s Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center efficiently performs all aspects of these tasks through a combination of fixed fees and hourly rates.
“The service center is a first-of-its-kind, systemized resource for employee benefits professionals who must carefully navigate through an increasingly intricate universe of administrative procedures and policies,” said Robert Flanagan, chair of the Seyfarth’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Department. “We are excited to provide this offering, which will allow employee benefits professionals to refocus their energy on the most strategic matters to their organizations.”
The Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center offers a special consolidated platform with a strategic staffing model to optimize efficiency and delivery. The Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center will be valuable to companies of all sizes, especially those with limited internal benefits staff, and those with multiple employee benefit plans or large participant populations where the staff may be inundated with a high volume of these administrative activities. By applying SeyfarthLean methodologies to these processes, the Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center can execute these services promptly and efficiently, freeing up employee benefits staff to focus on their core business.
The Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center offers the following services:
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IRS determination letter filings for defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans
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Review and submission of annual reports (Form 5500s) and “top hat” plan filings for non-qualified plans, compilation and submission of delinquent filer voluntary compliance program (DFVCP) filings
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Review and management of claims and appeals processing for all types of ERISA plans
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Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) administration
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Qualified Medical Child Support Order (QMCSO) administration
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“Legal instrument” review and validation. (Legal instruments include participant letters of conservatorship, letters of guardianship, letters of administration, letters testamentary, powers of attorney (general, health, financial, property), small estate affidavits, and trust documents.)
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Legal review and validation of levies, income withholding orders, and garnishments
- Special client administrative projects, such as internal procedural audits of existing administrative policies and practices, review of employee/participant communications for compliance and consistency, and training
“We listened to many of our clients talk about the challenges and time spent on these demanding tasks and, after carefully researching potential solutions, we are pleased to introduce what we believe is the most compelling offering in the marketplace today,” said Sherry Klenk, member of the firm’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Department.
The Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center will be hosted on SeyfarthLink, the firm’s award-winning online collaborative platform for clients. SeyfarthLink serves as the client hub for all the firm’s technology offerings, providing clients with real-time access to a variety of tools, including portfolio and matter reports, volume-trend databases, and financial transparency through custom and tailored reporting.
The Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Department focuses on supporting clients’ ongoing legal counseling needs with respect to the establishment, maintenance and termination of their retirement, health and welfare, and executive compensation plans and programs. The group is divided into internal specialty groups such as those focusing on health and welfare programs, executive compensation, defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans, multi-employer plans, fiduciary advisory services and administrative services.
For additional information about the Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center, please visit: www.seyfarth.com/EBAdminServices
