Niche employee benefits law firm LeFevre Law PC (the "Firm") and its affiliated compliance services company ERISAfire offer the best, most accurate compliance work product in the industry. We mean what we say, and we put our money where our mouth is. All our professional services carry a million-dollar warranty backed 100% by a combination of cash in the bank and a lawyers professional liability insurance policy, ensuring that the protection we provide is very real.

This legal opinion applies to plan document projects conducted by ERISAfire/LeFevre Law PC and shall be considered "issued" upon delivery of final plan document work product to the applicable employer-client, whether by email attachment or by posting to ERISAfire Projects, provided such final work product is properly and timely executed by the employer-client. (The Wrap+ legal opinion and warranty can be found here. The Form 5500 project legal opinion can be found here. ERISAfire's general warranty and audit defense guaranty can be found here.)

Upon delivery of final documents, the Firm will have examined the plan document work product and any prior ERISA plan documents, open enrollment information and enrollment data supplied to ERISAfire or the Firm, and the Firm will have applied both its knowledge of ERISA and its experience with ERISA compliance matters.

Based upon and subject to the foregoing and the other qualifications and limitations stated herein, the opinions of the Firm are as follows:

The opinions herein are issued by the Firm, which is backed by a policy of professional liability insurance having limits of at least $1,000,000 per claim and $1,000,000 in the aggregate. The Firm shall at all times maintain sufficient cash or cash-equivalents to satisfy the deductible for such policy. A copy of the declarations page from such policy can be provided upon request.

In the event the employer-client is subject to any governmental audit or inquiry regarding the above-referenced plan document work product—including an audit or investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and/or the Internal Revenue Service—the Firm covenants and guarantees that it will provide legal counsel to represent the employer-client in such audit or investigation to the extent such audit or investigation relates to the compliance or sufficiency of the plan documents, at no additional cost to the employer-client; provided that the plan documents were properly adopted and implemented by the employer-client. Requests for audit defense pursuant to this section must be made within two years of the date of final plan document work product delivery.

These opinions shall be interpreted in accordance with the legal opinion principles issued by the Committee on Legal Opinions of the American Bar Association’s Section of Business Law as published in 57 Bus. Law. 75 (2002).

The opinions herein are limited in all respects to the federal law of the United States as it exists on the date given. The Firm expresses no opinion with respect to the law of any other jurisdiction, and it assumes no obligation to update its opinions or to advise of any changes in facts or laws subsequent to the date of issuance. Similarly, the audit defense guarantee covenant applies solely to the compliance and sufficiency of the work product as of the date provided, and the Firm has no obligation to tender defense to the extent of any intervening change in the law or facts.

As to certain matters of fact relevant to the opinions herein, the Firm has relied on factual representations made by employer-client and its broker-consultant, and the Firm has not independently established those facts. Furthermore, the opinions given herein are qualified by any compliance findings made and reported to employer-client or its broker-consultant during or immediately after the plan document project, which may include posting of comments to ERISAfire Projects.

These opinions are delivered in connection with a specific plan document preparation project undertaken by the Firm, its affiliated compliance services company ERISAfire and the employer-client, may be relied upon only by the employer-client in connection with such project and may not be relied upon by the employer-client for any other purpose. The opinions herein may not be relied on by, or furnished to, any other person or entity without the Firm’s prior written consent and, without limiting the foregoing, may not be quoted, published, or otherwise disseminated, without in each instance the Firm’s prior written consent.