Date: Friday, September 15th
Little America
12pm – 1:30pm
 
Practical Considerations for Negotiating Service Agreements

There are a lot of things that we should read, understand and pay attention to: an airline contract of carriage, that privacy disclosure on Facebook or the stack of loan paperwork.  But, we don’t.  Instead, we just sign (or click) what we have in front of us and find out the hard way what the airline bumping or lost luggage policies are, that Facebook can tell someone else everything about us and the bank has a security agreement on our kidneys.  A service agreement is important, both for the plan and the service provider.  This presentation will address why plan administrators and service providers all should have a good service agreement in place, and what makes a good or bad agreement.  We will cover the terms that an agreement should include, how to address and allocate risks, and what the courts have said about service agreements.  A good service agreement can protect and benefit both the plan and the service provider -- without taking a kidney.
 
About Our Presenter

John Walch focuses on all aspects of qualified and non-qualified benefit plans, including equity-based incentive and compensation plans, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, qualified profit sharing plans, 401(k) plans, ESOPs, pension and welfare benefit plans.

For over 25 years, John has designed, drafted and obtained IRS approval of hundreds of qualified retirement plans.  For plans facing disqualification, he has obtained compliance statements from the IRS's Voluntary Compliance Program and negotiated positive resolutions to audit or determination letter issues.  He also advises plan fiduciaries on operational issues involving QDROs, plan investment policies and fiduciary liability issues.
John also has extensive experience obtaining individual prohibited transaction exemptions from the U.S. Department of Labor, defending IRS audits of qualified plans and litigating ERISA cases.
John also works with employers to design deferred compensation, stock option, stock appreciation right, phantom stock and other incentive plans.  He advises businesses on issues related to parachute payments, COBRA, HIPAA and other benefit plan issues.
When he is not helping plan sponsors and administrators run their benefit plans, John like to hike Utah’s mountains, read spy thrillers and yell at his television while watching college football games.