Pensions and Employee Benefits

Our Pensions Group is one of the leading specialist teams in the Irish pensions sector. The Group has considerable experience providing advice on all aspects of pensions law to a wide range of corporate clients, public sector and former public sector clients, pension scheme trustees and scheme members.

The Group provides the full range of pension advice including advice on scheme design, scheme set up, scheme administration, scheme mergers and winding ups. In addition, the Group advises on the pension aspects of mergers and acquisitions including the conduct of due diligence, the negotiation of related warranties and the merging or de-merging of pension schemes. We advise on a range of issues dealing with scheme administration and governance issues on a day to day basis. We also advise employers and trustees generally on all regulatory and compliance aspects of pension scheme administration including the handling of complaints and Pensions Authority enquiries and investigations. We advise companies and trustees on the full range of issues in relation to all aspects of occupational pension provisions, including:

Administration and governance of schemes
Interpretation of trust deeds
Amendment to schemes
Conversion from defined benefit to defined contribution
Accounting issues and FRS17
Family law pensions issues (divorce orders)
Pensions litigation and dispute resolution
Investment management and custody agreements

In addition to the above specialist services, as market leader in the corporate legal services sector in Ireland, we advise our clients on all corporate and commercial issues, banking and financial transactions and any tax and property matters that may arise.

The Group acts for a wide range of pension schemes from large industry wide schemes to small individual customised arrangements. We also act for schemes of some of the major employers in Ireland and acts for a number of commercial State and public sector schemes.

Relevant Experience

Advising a leading major financial institution on all aspects of a significant rationalisation of their pension arrangements
Advising a major institution on their pension scheme benefits and the possible switching from a defined benefit to defined contribution structure
Advising on the pension aspects of all the major Irish corporate transactions over the last number of years
Ongoing involvement in a number of major litigation matters regarding pension scheme administration