Jeff Witt advises public and private companies on a wide array of matters related to qualified retirement plans, executive compensation arrangements, and severance programs.
Jeff has many years of experience counseling clients on defined benefit plans (including plans with cash balance benefit formulas) and defined contribution plans, including plan design, plan drafting, participant communications and disclosures, compliance, IRS ruling and corrections, audits (Department of Labor, IRS, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation), and M&A activity. During the same period he has counseled clients in these matters for supplemental executive retirement programs, non-qualified deferred compensation plans, and non-qualified excess plans.
His past experience includes in-house counsel with legal responsibility for retirement programs and executive compensation at a Fortune 500 company. That experience, along with his knowledge of the law and administrative operations of both qualified and non-qualified retirement programs, enables him to provide a comprehensive and practical solutions to clients.
As part of his day-to-day and strategic counseling for clients, recent issues have included:
- Advising multiple clients on pension plan de-risking strategies to reduce administrative costs and exposure to fluctuations in pension liabilities.
- Advising clients on compliance with final hybrid plan regulations for cash balance plans.
- Advising a Fortune 500 company on design, drafting, and implementation of qualified and non-qualified retirement programs in large business spinoff of over 20,000 employees.
- Advising a client on the acquisition of a business with over 10,000 US employees and how to integrate the retirement programs.
- Designing union and non-union retirement programs, drafting plan documents, coordinating administration with plan record keepers, and communicating benefit programs to new employees on behalf of plan sponsors.
