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John Carney Chairs and Speaks, Jimmy Fokas Speaks at PLI Basics of Accounting for Lawyers 2025

Webinar Series: Transforming Legacy Management Experience

Rebecca Schrote Presents on APEX Depositions at Columbus Bar Association CLE Session

To Help the New Administration Help Your Industry, You Need an Agency Strategy (Real Estate Finance Journal)

Diane focuses her practice on establishing, maintaining and terminating qualified and non-qualified defined contribution and defined benefit retirement plans, and advising her clients on all types of issues related to the maintenance of health and welfare benefit plans. She addresses&nbsp;compliance issues on&nbsp;all types of employee benefit programs by counseling&nbsp;her clients on the often complex&nbsp;tax-qualification, tax exemption and excise tax requirements imposed by the U.S. Tax Code, plus&nbsp;ERISA’s disclosure, reporting, fiduciary and plan termination insurance requirements for single and multiemployer pension plans.

Diane helps her clients navigate any compliance issues with the requirements outlined by the Internal Revenue Service,&nbsp;the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). In particular, she advises employers, plan sponsors and plan service providers by devising&nbsp;and implementing robust solutions&nbsp;in response to inquiries and examinations initiated by independent accountants and&nbsp; government oversight agencies.&nbsp;

core/freeform

J.D., University of Akron School of Law, 1988

B.S., Ohio University, 1979

Cleveland

<i>The New York Times</i> reports on BakerHostetler’s negotiation and settlement with the Picower Estate for $5 billion in the SIPA liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC

Retirement Plans

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Controversies

<ul>
<li>Established pre-approved, individually designed retirement plan documents and advised employers on implementing the changes necessary to comply with revised tax-qualification requirements. Drafted and maintained the related Summary Plan Descriptions, Summary of Material Modifications and other required disclosures.  Advised clients on compliance with ERISA’s reporting and disclosure rules.</li>
<li>Obtained IRS rulings and favorable determination letters for newly established, amended and restated, merged and terminated qualified retirement plans by crafting successful demonstrations of compliance with changes in tax-qualification requirements.</li>
<li>Procured favorable determinations for several cash balance and other “hybrid” plans following the end of the IRS’s nearly 10-year moratorium on rulings on hybrid plans.</li>
<li>Shepherded a complex merger/spin-off/termination transaction of two sizable pension plans maintained by a large publicly traded corporation, including amending the related plans, preparing and submitting an IRS favorable determination letter application, advising the plan sponsor on the purchase of annuity contracts according to the DOL fiduciary guidelines, and representing the plan sponsor before the PBGC in appealing and negotiating the settlement of a $3 million termination premium assessment.</li>
<li>Represented a plan sponsor during bankruptcy liquidation in response to the claims of the PBGC and the bargaining units in order to prevent the assessment of the multiemployer plan liability against the personal assets of the primary shareholder of the plan sponsor.</li>
<li>Prepared and submitted many complex Voluntary Correction Program applications and advised on self-correction efforts and voluntary closing agreement programs where applicable for tax-qualified retirement plans under the IRS Employee Plans Correction Resolution Program.</li>
<li>Helped resolve operational and plan document failures, including obtaining the resolution of a complex set of defined benefit plan operational failures occurring over 10 years and involving multiple failures of the minimum participation requirements and overpayment of benefits during a period when benefits payments should have been restricted due to insufficient funding levels under Code Section 436.</li>
<li>Advised on and prepared several EBSA Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program applications to obtain “no-action” letters from the DOL for breaches of fiduciary duty under ERISA such as late deposits of employee 401(k) contributions.</li>
<li>Prepared and submitted several EBSA Delinquent Filer Voluntary Correction Program applications to resolve failures to timely file Form 5500 annual reports to avoid significant civil penalties.</li>
<li>When the Delinquent Filer program was not available, represented a large publicly traded employer before the EBSA to negotiate the reduction of a $50,000 civil penalty assessed against an acquired entity that failed to timely file a prior annual report.</li>
<li>Analyzed and applied several overlapping numerical compliance tests for qualified retirement plans, health plans and cafeteria plans for complex commonly controlled groups of employers, including analyzing and applying the Tax Code’s Qualified Separate Lines of Business (QSLOB) method to satisfy minimum coverage testing for the qualified plans maintained by several large publicly traded corporations and for U.S.-based affiliates of large multinational corporations.</li>
<li>Analyzed and advised employers and plan sponsors in regards to retirement benefit payment issues and disputes such as reviewing complex Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO) for compliance, death benefit issues and retirement benefit payment disputes, with a goal of avoiding costly litigation or controversies.</li>
</ul>


Diane D. Wilcox

Diane D. Wilcox

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