Heidi practices employee benefits law with an emphasis on retirement plan and executive compensation matters. Her practice includes counseling employers on designing and maintaining practical employee benefits strategies to attract, reward, retain, and engage a talented and diverse workforce at a manageable cost.

Heidi discovered the employee benefits area of the law after being hired as an intern at the Department of Labor during law school. She would later learn that her lack of prior knowledge about employee benefits helped her obtain the internship because the law students who were familiar with that area had lacked enthusiasm. Heidi embraced the challenge of navigating the complex tax and labor rules that apply to benefit plans and has focused her practice in employee benefits ever since the internship.

Representative Experience

  • Designing and drafting defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans, including 401(a), 401(k), 403(b), 457, stock bonus and employee stock ownership plans
  • Performing preventative audits of plans and client training to identify areas of non-compliance and inefficiency, such as reviewing payroll practices for issues raised by calculating compensation, determining eligibility and forwarding payroll contributions
  • Advising tax-exempt employers on the issues raised by the final 403(b) regulations, including compliance with ERISA and the plan document requirement, information sharing agreements, and Form 5500 filing requirements
  • Coordinating the merger and transition of retirement plans sponsored by a publicly traded manufacturing company from multiple recordkeepers and investment service providers to one new provider and recordkeeper
  • Designing early retirement programs offering additional pension and health benefits to downsize a workforce including employees from several unions
  • Counseling private and publicly traded employers on managing the fiduciary risk associated with employer stock retirement plan investments
  • Advising employers on planning for acquisitions of new subsidiaries with substantially different existing retirement plan arrangements
  • Assisting employers with the review, design, drafting and 409A compliance of non-qualified deferred compensation plans for executives and key employees
  • Designing and drafting governmental pick-up plans
  • Assisting with the design and implementation of different levels of plan contributions for union and non-union employees at multiple locations within the same company

Honors and Awards

  • Recognized by Michigan Lawyers Weekly as one of its 20 Up & Coming Lawyers for 2009 for her work in employee benefits
  • Named as a Michigan Super Lawyer Rising Star - 2009-2011
  • Notes Editor, The Environmental Lawyer

Bar Associations

  • American Bar Association
    Tax Section, Employee Benefits Subcommittee, and Joint Committee on Employee Benefits
  • State Bar of Michigan
    Tax Section and Employee Benefits Subcommittee
  • Grand Rapids Bar Association

Teaching and Lecturing

  • "Retirement Plan RFPs," WNJ Webinar, December 20, 2011
  • "Tackling Administration Challenges," WNJ Human Resources Seminar, March 25, 2011, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • "Back to the Basics of 401(k)," WNJ Human Resources Seminar, March 23, 2010, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • "FAQs About The Division of Retirement Plan Assets," presented to the GRBA Family Law Section in Grand Rapids, Michigan, February 23, 2011
  • "New Compliance Challenges for Employers and Other Plan Fiduciaries" and "Hot Fringe Benefits Issues," WNJ Human Resources Seminar, September 11, 2008, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • The Legal Aspects of Wellness and Health Plan Compliance, Health Care Seminar, August 21, 2007, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Publications

  • Coauthor, "Division of Retirement Benefits," Michigan Family Law (7th ed.), Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education
  • "For Better or For Worse:  The New Determination Letter System For Qualified Retirement Plans," Michigan Tax Lawyer, Volume XXII, Issue 2, Summer 2007
  • Employers Can Now Offer Roth 401(k)$
  • Upheaval in the World of Nonqualified Deferred Compensation

Professional Affiliations

  • Employee Stock Ownership Plan Association of America
    Professional Member
  • IRS Great Lakes Tax-Exempt and Governmental Entities Council
    Emeritus Member
  • American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA)
    Member
  • Economic Club of Grand Rapids
    Member

Community Affiliations

  • Arts Council of Greater Grand Rapids
    Board Member, Nominating Committee Chair and Past Vice President

News

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