Thomas G. Hancuch

Thomas Hancuch helps employers tackle difficult employee benefits, compensation and compliance issues. Nationally recognized as a leader in his field, Tom provides practical legal counsel in plain English, crafting solutions that enable clients to achieve their business objectives.

Tom’s practice centers on employee benefit plan design and administration, including ERISA, Internal Revenue Code and Affordable Care Act compliance. He also counsels clients on employment and benefits issues in mergers and acquisitions, severance and exit incentive programs, workforce reductions and outsourcing, leaves of absence, disability accommodations, and remote and hybrid work arrangements. In addition, Tom guides employers in handling employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims, worker classification questions, wage-and-hour law compliance and other critical human resources matters.

Drawing on three decades of experience, Tom helps financial and professional services firms, healthcare organizations, life sciences companies, manufacturers, educational and cultural institutions, and other employers manage and ensure compliance with evolving legal requirements. Always attuned to employer best practices and emerging trends, he delivers business-smart counsel on employment and employee benefits matters, enabling clients to focus on attracting and retaining talent, delivering benefits in a cost-effective, tax-efficient manner, and building their businesses.

Tom is a fellow of the prestigious American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, a select group of practitioners recognized for their expertise and contributions to the advancement of employee benefits law.

Experience

• Advised regional healthcare system and academic medical center on the consolidation and redesign of its retirement program, including freezing of a cash balance pension plan, consolidation of multiple 403(b) plans, termination of a 401(k) plan, redesign of nonqualified plans maintained under Code Sections 457(b) and 457(f), and related recordkeeper and investment consultant RFPs. The project simplified the design of the organization’s retirement benefit programs, streamlined administration, and resulted in significant cost savings.
• Successfully advised a leading employee benefits consulting firm on the handling of claims for additional pension benefits by retirees, all of whom were former actuaries. The end result:  no payments of additional benefits and no litigation filed by any of the claimants.
• Defended employer against an IRS notice of proposed Affordable Care Act (ACA) employer shared responsibility assessment of over $20 million, resulting in an IRS determination that nothing was owed by the employer.
• Advised employers with multiple legacy retiree medical and life insurance plans covering union and non-union participants on the termination of such plans without further liability.
• Counseled an employer with operations throughout the United States on a workforce reduction taking place in several waves, including severance benefit plan design, structuring of selection process, review of tentative selection decisions for adverse impact, preparation of employee communications, severance agreements and Older Workers Benefit Protection Act disclosures, and state and federal WARN Act compliance, including notices to workers and to state and local officials.
• Represented global manufacturer based in the European Union on inbound and outbound executive transfers involving its U.S. subsidiaries including employment agreements, retirement and group insurance benefits, compensation arrangements, and expense reimbursements.
• Worked with employers and their pension actuaries on defined benefit plan derisking including design and implementation of lump sum windows, annuity lift-outs, and other derisking strategies.