Sarah Ivy

Sarah Ivy, Esq., focuses her practice in the areas of employee benefits law, executive compensation and taxation. She has more than 20 years of experience analyzing regulations under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and applying those rules to a range of benefits plans such as qualified retirement (401(k), 403(b), profit-sharing and pension plans), welfare benefits plans, non-qualified deferred compensation plans and equity-based compensation plans.

Because many types of employee benefits involve the use of insurance policies, Sarah has significant experience evaluating and advising clients with respect to health insurance products, the use of life insurance as a funding mechanism for deferred compensation and business succession planning and the advantages and disadvantages of self-insuring certain benefits.

Sarah advises clients across all industries including both for-profit and nonprofit organizations with respect to compliance with complex employee benefits regulations and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). She works closely with clients to design benefits plans that maintain compliance with federal law and assists employers involved with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) or Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits or reviews.

She counsels companies on the design and documentation of executive compensation arrangements including severance agreements as a business transition planning tool. She has substantial experience evaluating and advising with respect to various types of methods used to fund certain benefits, including, but not limited to self- insurance, split-dollar life insurance, key man life insurance and other forms of insurance-based products. Sarah also advises clients on employee benefits issues that arise in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. She also conducts reviews of various employment-related documents such as employee handbooks, employment  agreements and non-compete agreements.

Prior to joining Saxton & Stump, Sarah worked as an executive compensation, employee benefits and ERISA attorney with various law firms including Stevens & Lee, P.C., Fox Rothschild LLP and McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC. Most recently, she was a partner with FisherBroyles, LLP in Philadelphia.