Our practice houses a wealth of expertise and experience of working together with our clients on such areas as:

Legal and Regulatory

• Advice on all legal and regulatory aspects of pensions, including
  • labour law
  • social security law
  • insurance law
  • control legislation for pension funds and
  • collective insurance
• Advice on all aspects of the law on occupational pensions
• Drafting and amending plan documentation to comply with new legislation and case law
• Design, modification and administration of pension schemes, including
  • individual
  • employer
  • industry-wide
  • sector
  • social and
  • international
• Mergers, (international) transfers and wind-ups of pension schemes
• Conversion from defined benefit schemes to defined contribution or cash-balance schemes
• Pension-related mergers and acquisitions issues
• Drafting or modification of pension fund by-laws and service agreements between pension provider and sponsors
• Employee information and consultation obligations
• Strategic pension audits and due diligence studies
• Analysis and screening of pension schemes and individual pension commitments for compliance with legislation and regulations
• Advice on individual pension commitments for employees, executives and directors
• Advice to pension funds on issues relating to their structure, organisation and financing
• Independent advice as to the choice of pension carrier and pension scheme

Tax

• Advice on the tax treatment of the financing and the distribution of pension schemes
• Tax planning and optimisation of pension schemes
• International pension treatment and planning for internationally mobile employees and executives
• Optimisation of compensation packages upon termination of the employment relationship and deferral of compensation

Plan administration

• Set up and complete daily management / administration of pension schemes / funds including
  • calculation of benefits and vested rights
  • beneficiary database
  • preparation of annual accounts
  • provision of annual returns to Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission
  • cosourcing or outsourcing of internal audit function
  • cosourcing or outsourcing of compliance function, and
  • employee communication

Actuarial and financial reporting services

• Provision cost and long term liability projections
• Actuarial valuations
• Financial reporting (IAS 19 rules)
• Actuarial calculations regarding tax rules (e.g. 80% rule), and
• Asset Liability Management (ALM) studies