Christopher S. Sears

Christopher S. Sears is Senior Counsel in the Employee Benefits Group at Ice Miller, concentrating his practice in the field of health care and employee benefits and assisting clients in designing and maintaining health and retirement plans and other employee benefits. He works with public and private employees, which include governmental plans at all levels, hospitals, and other tax-exempt organizations.

Chris helps clients design employer-sponsored health plans and other benefits such as cafeteria plans, tuition reimbursement plans, long- and short-term disability plans, health reimbursement accounts, health savings accounts, and life insurance plans. He also helps them comply with a myriad of regulatory laws such as ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, HIPAA, ADA, FMLA, and COBRA. Chris also concentrates on laws regulating the privacy of health information. In particular, he works closely with both health plans and health care providers in their efforts to comply with the complex privacy rules of HIPAA, as well as state privacy laws. He also consults with clients to adopt, maintain, and terminate their employee pension and retirement plans in compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA. In doing so, he assists clients with their 403(b) and 401(k) plans, defined benefit plans, and nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements (including those under Code Section 457(b) and 457(f)).