Structuring Inpat and Expat Pension, Health and Welfare Plans: Challenges for Multinational Employers

Multinational employers are increasingly transferring employees to cross-border locations as business operations continue to become more global. Multinational employers and their counsel must be versed in the legal requirements and implications of cross-border assignments on employee pension, health and welfare benefits in order to avoid costly missteps.

Key considerations for multinational employers include determining which corporate entity of the multinational company should fund the benefits plan and/or tender benefits to inpats and expats, taking into account reporting and tax requirements, social security rules, securities laws, joint-employer liability and other legal issues. In addition, multinational employers must ensure that benefits are clearly and explicitly documented in a written employment agreement to avoid confusion and disputes.

Counsel for U.S. multinational employers also need to understand recently issued proposed regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which will assist employers in determining if health coverage provided to U.S. employees sent abroad or to foreign nationals posted in the U.S. meet the legal standards to be exempt from the ACA’s market reforms and to be considered minimum essential coverage. The new regulations take effect in 2017.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses legal considerations and best practices for employee benefits counsel designing pension, health and welfare plans for inpatriates and expatriates on behalf of multinational companies, including the details of the proposed regulations under the ACA on expat health benefits and lifetime and annual dollar limits.

1. Trends and developments impacting employee benefits for inpats and expats
2. Legal and tax considerations and best practices for multinational employers designing employee benefits plans
3. Overview of proposed regulations on excepted benefits, and lifetime and annual dollar limits for expats under the ACA

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• What types of employee benefits do multinational employers typically offer inpats and expats?
• What legal and tax considerations should counsel for multinational employers take into account when determining which benefits to offer and how to structure plans?
• What is the anticipated impact of the newly proposed regulations on health benefits for expats under the ACA?