Groom deeply mourns the untimely and sudden passing of our dear colleague, Richard (“Rick”) Matta, on January 17. Please find our statement here.
In his time at Groom, Richard Matta advised clients with respect to the structuring and marketing of investment products and financial services to tax-qualified retirement plans, voluntary employees beneficiary association (VEBA) plans, governmental plans, IRAs, and other tax-exempt investors. His practice focused on the intersection of ERISA with securities, tax, banking, and other applicable laws.
Rick’s financial products experience included advising on mutual funds, hedge and private equity funds, bank collective trusts, real estate, derivatives, and other alternative investments. He also advised on investment advisory and “managed account” programs, brokerage and wrap products, recordkeeping platforms, outsourced CIO services, independent fiduciary services, securities lending, bank sweeps, trust and custody services, and service provider “alliance” agreements.
His experience extended to helping plan fiduciaries with governance/compliance audits and development of compliance programs and investment policies. In addition to advising on ERISA fiduciary and prohibited transaction matters, he advised plan service providers on securities law issues involving exemptions from broker-dealer registration, Investment Advisers Act compliance, exemptions from the Investment Company Act, and private offering rules. Representative clients included Fortune 500 and governmental plan sponsors; independent VEBAs; large banks, broker-dealers and mutual fund complexes as well as trust companies and private fund managers.
He also regularly counseled a number of other law firms and their clients in connection with complex and specialized ERISA, IRA, and governmental plan issues. Rick worked with clients in obtaining scores of Department of Labor prohibited transaction exemptions and advisory opinions, as well as SEC and FINRA guidance and IRS rulings. He advised large defined benefit plan sponsors and fiduciaries on issues relating to the acquisition and holding of employer securities and de-risking transactions such as in-kind contributions of assets and participant cash-outs.
Rick co-chaired Groom’s IRA Practice Group where he advised financial institutions on IRA and HSA products—custody, brokerage, advisory, and other services—and prohibited transaction issues. He also advised family offices, wealth managers and ultra-high net worth individuals with respect to large and complex IRA investment transactions.
