DOL Investigations of Employee Benefit Plans: Responding to Enforcement Actions, Audits, and Settlements
Recording of a 90-minute premium CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will prepare employee benefits counsel to represent plan fiduciaries and sponsors facing Department of Labor (DOL) investigations or lawsuits. Our experienced panel will discuss how to navigate the investigation process, offer practice pointers on working with the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) investigators, discuss strategies for determining and implementing corrective action, and offer insights into entering into a settlement agreement with the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) or with the DOL’s Solicitor’s Office if referred for litigation.
Outline
- Overview of DOL/EBSA regulatory scheme and enforcement initiatives
- Best practices for responding to investigations and audits
- Working with auditors and investigators
- Corrective action and settlements
Benefits
The panel will review these and other relevant issues:
- What factors should counsel to plan sponsors or plan fiduciaries consider when determining whether to seek settlement of an enforcement action?
- What are the challenges and pitfalls for negotiating settlements and penalties with EBSA? With the DOL’s Solicitor’s Office?
- What are best practices for ensuring compliance and avoiding agency scrutiny?
- What are the DOL's enforcement initiatives focusing on in 2021 leading into 2022?
Faculty
Ivelisse Berio LeBeau, Esq.
Partner
The Wagner Law Group
Ms. Berio LeBeau's practice focuses on employee benefits law and ERISA with an emphasis on litigation and... | Read More
Ms. Berio LeBeau's practice focuses on employee benefits law and ERISA with an emphasis on litigation and compliance matters relating to the fiduciary responsibilities imposed by ERISA. As a former DOL attorney enforcing ERISA, Ms. Berio LeBeau assisted EBSA during DOL investigations and brought legal actions claiming that fiduciaries to ERISA employee benefit plans breached their fiduciary duties to such plans. She worked on many different types of cases, including cases involving trustees to ERISA pension plans who breached fiduciary duties in making investment decisions and fiduciaries to 401(k) plans who failed to ensure that employee contributions were properly transferred to such plans.
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José M. Jara
Counsel
Fox Rothschild
Mr. Jara has over 20 years of ERISA and employee benefits experience, ranging from governmental compliance, fiduciary... | Read More
Mr. Jara has over 20 years of ERISA and employee benefits experience, ranging from governmental compliance, fiduciary liability insurance, to the application of ERISA’s fiduciary standards and prohibited transaction provisions. Mr. Jara has extensive experience resolving issues for corporate plan sponsors and multiemployer plans before the U.S. Department of Labor, where he was formerly a senior pension law specialist and investigator.
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