SEND AN E-MAIL TO THIS FELLOWDavid Whaley
Cincinnati, OH
David A. Whaley, Partner at Thompson Hine, LLP, in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a leader in the employee benefits industry. He has served as Chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association, Chair of the ESOP Subcommittee of the same Employee Benefits Committee, a member of the American Bar Association Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, a member of the Retirement Income Task Force of the American Benefits Council, a leader of the Legislative and Regulatory Committee of the ESOP Association, a member of the Advisory Board of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center and Chair of the Cincinnati Bar Association Employee Benefits Committee. In each of these roles, he has demonstrated, and continues to demonstrate, a strong and sustained commitment to the development and understanding of the law of employee benefits.
His practice focuses on assisting private and public companies and nonprofit organizations with all areas of employee benefits. This includes working with employers in design, implementation, and compliance areas in connection with tax qualified plans, including 401(k) plans, ESOPs and defined benefit plans. His representation also extends to working with employers in arranging their nonqualified deferred compensation (e.g., 409A compliance), in addition to health and welfare arrangements and employee fringe benefits.
David has extensive experience in the area of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). His ESOP experience includes representing company sponsors of ESOPs and ESOP trustees and fiduciaries in acquisition transactions between the company, selling shareholders and the ESOP. In addition, he has worked with ESOP companies and ESOP trustees and fiduciaries in connection with acquisitions, divestitures and corporate organization once the ESOP owns company stock. Further, he assists both ESOP companies and lending institutions in connection with loans being made to ESOP companies so as to enable those companies to be able to meet their unique needs. Finally, David assists both ESOP companies and ESOP trustees and fiduciaries in connection with governmental investigations, participant claims processing, and governmental and plaintiff litigation.
In addition to his ESOP experience, David’s practice encompasses assisting employers with modifying and properly administering both small and large defined benefit and defined contribution plans, supplemental retirement programs, equity compensation programs, health and welfare arrangements and employee fringe benefits programs.
In doing such, David assists nonprofit employers in drafting and administering qualified and nonqualified plans, including 403(b), 457(b) and 457(f) plans. He assists staffing firms and professional employer organizations (PEOs) in offering employee benefit programs to their client organizations. David also has the unique experience of assisting larger employers (both public and private) in establishing benefit programs for newly established entities resulting from corporate reorganizations.
In addition, he represents plan sponsors before the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in connection with audits of employee benefit plans.
Finally, David helps employers comply with the mandates of the Affordable Care Act, providing counsel on the design of eligibility modifications to ensure compliance with the terms of the “pay or play” mandate in a way that both protects the employer from penalties while ensuring the continued delivery of an employee benefit that serves the employer’s recruitment and retention goals.
