Overview

Amanda Dernovshek is a member of the Business and Tax group. Her practice focuses on issues related to federal taxation, employee benefits, and business planning. Amanda also assists the Firm’s mergers and acquisitions team.

Amanda works with clients to answer questions related to complicated employee benefits issues and general business issues. She aims to assist clients by providing understandable and practical advice. Specifically, the types of issues Amanda handles include:

Employee Benefits

Drafting required documentation for plans covered by ERISA including Plan documents, Summary Plan Descriptions, and Summaries of Material Modification
Guiding clients through discussions related to establishing, amending, and terminating employee benefit plans, including cafeteria plans, 401(k) plans, defined benefit plans, and deferred compensation plans
Assisting clients with compliance under ERISA, COBRA, health care reform, and other relevant laws
Providing guidance for benefit plan administration including review of QDROs, analysis of benefit coverage issues, and advice concerning nondiscrimination testing
Facilitating employee benefit plan corrections to reduce penalties through formal governmental programs
Corresponding with the IRS and DOL on behalf of clients related to audits of employee benefit plans

Business Planning

Assisting a variety of businesses in analyzing the considerations involved in entity selection and formation
Facilitating discussions with shareholders of corporations and members of LLCs on a variety of issues and drafting shareholder and operating agreements to meet client needs
Advising clients on the process and assisting them with submission of IRS applications for tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)
Performing due diligence during mergers and acquisition transactions for a variety of businesses of all sizes

Prior to joining Foster Swift, Amanda served as a judicial extern for Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals under the Honorable David McKeague.

Amanda earned her undergraduate and master’s degree at East Tennessee State University in her home state of Tennessee. She then moved to Michigan and earned her juris doctorate at Michigan State University College of Law, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Law Review.

Honors & Recognitions

Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, "10 Over the Next Ten" Award Nominee, 2022

Affiliations

Memberships & Affiliations

Legal Affiliations

State Bar of Michigan
American Bar Association

Community Affiliations

Girls on the Run Mid Michigan, Board Trustee and IDEA Project Manager
Junior League of Lansing, Member

Experience

Representative Matters

Advising an international company on its executive compensation plan, which was designed to incentivize diversity and inclusion among the company employees and management
Conducting extensive diligence that involved reviewing hundreds of contracts to determine the implications of a stock transaction between two hospitals in which change in control was an important issue
Assisting a client with all materials needed to file a voluntary correction program application to obtain approval of the client’s correction of a failure that involved the omission of required form filings for over a decade
Advising clients on the correction options and processes upon discovery of administrative errors in 401(k) Plan administration
Assisting clients in reconciling stock histories and certificates in connection with ESOP repurchases and releveraging
Counseling a family business on its business succession planning issues, including discussions related to selling and gifting portions of the business to the owners' children