Practices

Pensions and Incentives

Our expertise:

Our Group provides experienced direction on transactional and advisory work for domestic and international, private sector and public sector clients. Our clients cover the full range of multi-national corporate organisations, major domestic bodies and State and commercial semi-State entities, SME and start-up clients.  We advise on the design, implementation and restructuring of pension and remuneration plans. The Group has a history of advising on some of the most complex and largest pension issues of the past decade.  We have particular and recent experience in innovative pension cases, which have evolved due to distressed situations for trustees and employers for schemes relating to high profile companies, bodies and organisations.

Our incentives work involves advising sponsoring employers and trustees on both Revenue approved and unapproved incentive plans.

Key areas:

Our work in this area includes advising on:

• The establishment, harmonisation, restructuring, freezing and wind-up of pension arrangements
• Dealing with the legal aspects of funding proposals and plans and contingent assets
• public sector pension schemes and issues specifically relating to those schemes
• governance, administration and day-to-day management of pension schemes including compliance with pensions legislation
• Internal dispute resolution, Pensions Ombudsman Claims, mediation and general litigation
• relation to outsourcing, both in the public and private sectors
• relation to liability management exercises
• Scheme specific trustee and committee training
• Pensions aspects of corporate finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions, management buy-outs and business sales

Our incentives work includes:

• Revenue-approved profit sharing schemes
• Revenue-approved save-as-you-earn schemes
• “KEEP” share option schemes
• Management incentive plans (cash-based)
• Unapproved share option schemes
• Long-term incentive plans
• Restricted stock unit plans
• Employee share ownership trusts