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.

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

Communications

Publications

• Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States: A Brief Review of the Recent Changes to CFIUS, Foster Swift Business & Tax Law News, November 30, 2020
• IRS Announces 2021 Cost-of-Living Adjustments for Retirement Plans and for Health and Welfare Benefit Plans, Foster Swift Business & Tax Law E-blast, October 27, 2020
• MERS Defined Benefit Plan Changes, Foster Swift Municipal Law News E-blast, September 21, 2020
• Common Compliance Errors: Cafeteria Plans, Foster Swift Business & Tax Law E-blast, September 14, 2020
• The Benefits of Adopting a Pre-Approved Plan, Foster Swift Business & Tax Law News E-blast, August 11, 2020
• Fiduciary Basics for Benefits Plans, Business & Tax Law News E-blast, July 27, 2020

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News & Events

Speaking Engagements

• Tax Through an Agribusiness Lens – Part 1, Michigan Association of CPAs (MICPA), June 30, 2020
• Tax Implications of Divorce After Tax Reform: Alimony, Property Divisions, Divorce Modifications, Child Credits, Strafford, August 22, 2019

News

• Legal Requirements For Employer Benefit Plans, Michigan Business Network, September 29, 2020
• Foster Swift Welcomes Five New Attorneys, November 16, 2018

Media

Small Business Resources

How to Form an LLC