Mr. Busacker focuses his practice on employee benefits and executive compensation matters. He has significant experience in counseling publicly owned, privately held, and non-profit businesses in structuring retirement, incentive compensation, equity compensation, and executive compensation programs. Mr. Busacker reviews retirement plans, welfare plans, and compensation arrangements for compliance with applicable tax, labor, and securities rules. Mr. Busacker counsels with HR executives, compensation committees, and benefits committees, and advises them on benefit plan design considerations, plan administration and compliance issues, and fiduciary and governance matters.
Significant Representation
Retirement Benefits
- Draft 401(k) and defined benefit pension plan documents, restatements, and amendments.
- Advise non-profit clients concerning the establishment and maintenance of 403(b) and 457 plans.
- Counsel clients concerning plan distribution issues such as participant loans, domestic relations orders, and hardship withdrawals.
- Counsel clients in connection with service provider matters such as service agreement review, fee disclosure rules, investment fund changes, and service provider changes.
- Advise clients regarding issues relating to distributions, including in-service withdrawals, minimum required distributions, and automatic cash-outs and rollovers.
- Counsel clients regarding required pension funding amounts, benefit restrictions, required annual notices, and PBGC filings.
- Assist clients with plan corrections, with regard to missed deferrals, delinquent contributions, and nondiscrimination testing failures.
- Advise clients concerning the use of retirement plan assets to pay plan expenses and the asset segregation rules.
Executive Benefits
- Review plan documents, equity awards, employment agreements, change in control agreements, and severance agreements for compliance with applicable tax rules and ERISA requirements.
- Advise clients concerning the IRS correction procedures applicable to nonqualified deferred compensation plans.
- Prepare plan documents, amendments, and participant summaries for deferred compensation and incentive plans.
- Prepare rabbi trust agreements for nonqualified deferred compensation plans.
- Review the executive compensation disclosures in proxy statements.
- Advise clients concerning the disclosure and SEC filing requirements applicable to equity compensation plans.
Welfare Benefits
- Review and prepare COBRA notices, advise clients regarding obligation to offer, and ability to terminate COBRA continuation coverage.
- Prepare and review cafeteria plan documents and SPDs; counsel clients regarding cafeteria plan requirements, including mid-year election change rules.
- Prepare wrap plan documents to substantiate filing a single Form 5500.
- Prepare wrap SPDs to ensure compliance with ERISA’s disclosure requirements.
- Review plan documents and SPDs to confirm compliance with ERISA’s disclosure requirements and to highlight issues generating claims or litigation.
- Counsel clients regarding cafeteria plan and Code Section 105(h) nondiscrimination requirements.
General Benefit Matters
- Counsel clients on benefits issues in connection with mergers, acquisitions, facility shut-downs, reductions in force, and bankruptcies.
- Draft fiduciary delegation documents and organizational documents for committees.
- Attend benefits committee meetings and draft minutes or actions without a meeting.
- Review Forms 5500 and related audit reports.
Practice Areas
Education
Law School: The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, J.D., 2000
Graduate: Washington State University, College of Business and Economics, M.B.A., 1997
Undergraduate: Brigham Young University, B.A., 1995
Community Activities
Summer Work Experience in Law, Inc., Board Member and Treasurer, Cincinnati, Ohio
J. Reuben Clark Law Society, Board Member, Ohio Chapter
