Linda Stuessi - San Diego, CA

Overview

Linda's practice includes drafting trust documents, including trust agreements, plans, amendments, COBRA notices, notices and communications to plan participants, and summary plan descriptions. She performs research on legal issues in employee benefits law and tax law and drafts legal research memorandums to Board of Trustees and trust advisors. Linda coordinates with other trust advisors on all trust issues with legal implications and attends Board of Trustee meetings to report legal developments and guide trustees on legal issues. Her clients include active medical plans, multiple employer plans, single employer plans, governmental plans, MEWAs and retiree medical plans. Linda also performs research and prepares requests to the IRS for private letter ruling, responds to legal questions from trust advisors and trustees between trust meetings and reviews and negotiates contracts from trust service providers.

Linda has experience with establishing and maintaining legal compliance for Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements or MEWAs. She is knowledgeable on the U.S. Department of Labor requirements for association health plans and ERISA requirements for a Plan MEWA. She has been working with MEWAs in the state of California and Washington for over 15 years. She has represented MEWAs and other Plans before the California Department of Managed Health Care. She has also been involved in successful lobbying efforts for legislation on behalf of her California MEWA clients. These experiences have provided her with unique perspectives and knowledge of the regulatory landscape for MEWAs in the State of California.

Prior to joining The Wagner Law Group, Linda worked as an attorney at several law firms on securities class action lawsuits and civil litigation in employment, labor and first amendment law. She also taught classes in Business Law and Employment Law as an adjunct professor at Coastal Carolina Community College. Linda served as a Law Clerk, US District Court for Southern District of California and the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit.