Mark A. Daniele | McCarter & English, LLP

Mark Daniele is a trusted business advisor and serves as benefits counsel to multinational public and private companies, tax-exempt organizations, and other plan sponsors and plan fiduciary committees regarding their employee benefits plan issues, including the design, interpretation, governance, and regulatory compliance of retirement benefit plans, welfare benefit plans, and fringe benefit plans.

Mark advises clients on tax and ERISA issues regarding pension and welfare benefit plans in domestic and international acquisitions, dispositions, and mergers and has extensive experience in the design and harmonization of employee benefits plans following such transactions.

He advises plan benefit committees and boards of directors on ERISA fiduciary and governance issues, including fiduciary liability and benefit claims. He also advises bankruptcy trustees and retiree committees on ERISA and employee benefits issues.

Mark represents clients regarding plan audits and plan correction issues before the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor, including voluntary correction programs.

Mark is the immediate past Practice Group Leader for the firm’s Tax, Employee Benefits & Private Clients Group and was a member of the firm’s Executive Committee from 2012 to 2019. He is currently a member of the firm’s Finance Committee.

Played an instrumental role in helping an international chemical company achieve its key objective of consolidating several of its “legacy” defined benefit pension plans into a single plan, resulting in administrative and cost efficiencies. In these spinoff and merger transactions, we helped establish a newly defined benefit pension plan into which two “legacy” defined benefit pension plans were merged and a spinoff population from a third “legacy” defined benefit pension plan were consolidated into a single plan. At the same time, the company consolidated trustee and investment management services and established a single master trust with a new trustee.

Advised and assisted a large international container shipping company in establishing an ERISA plan fiduciary committee with oversight responsibility for the company sponsored 401(k) plan, including preparation of committee charter, appropriate board resolutions appointing the committee members, attendance at committee meetings, and the selection of an ERISA 3(21) investment consultant through a rigorous request for proposal process.

Advised a large not for profit testing and assessment organization in a significant consolidation of trustee, custodian, investment platform provider, and recordkeeping services with a single vendor with respect to its 403(b) plan and money purchase pension plan, a portion of whose assets were held in a group annuity contract, achieving cost savings for the participant of the plans. We negotiated new trustee, recordkeeping, custodian and related administrative service agreements with both the old and the new vendor, prepared plan amendments, board approval documentation, and reviewed participant communications.