Practices

Pensions and Incentives

We advise companies, boards of directors, trustees, and compensation committees on a broad range of pension and incentive issues.

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.

‘‘The pensions team in McCann FitzGerald provides an excellent service.’’

The Legal 500, 2024

‘‘Smart, capable and collegiate.’’

The Legal 500, 2024

‘‘A very strong pensions team.’’

The Legal 500, 2024

‘‘No matter how complex the matter seems, the team at McCann FitzGerald are able to provide a response which can be understood by non-legal people. They have never failed to address a query in an efficient manner.’’

Chambers 2023

‘‘McCann FitzGerald LLP’s pensions and incentives group is well known for its particular expertise in public sector pension schemes. The team works closely with the employment group to provide holistic advice on the full range of employee benefits and incentive matters. ’’

The Legal 500, 2023 (Tier 1)

Key areas:

Our work in this area includes advising on:

the establishment, harmonisation, restructuring, freezing and wind-up of public and private sector pension arrangements
dealing with the legal aspects of funding proposals and contingent assets, as well as s50 directions
scheme mergers and moves to master trust vehicles
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 and regulatory requirements
pensions disputes and investigations including internal dispute resolution, Pensions Ombudsman complaints, Pensions Authority engagement and investigations, regulatory investigations, mediation, judicial review and general litigation
outsourcing, both in the public and private sectors
relation to liability management exercises including PIE, ETVs, buy-ins, and buy-outs
pensions investment law and compliance with ESG regulations including SFDR and SRD II
the exercise of discretionary powers and duties
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