John M. Wirtshafter

John has extensive experience assisting mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies with employee benefits and executive compensation issues and opportunities, including benefits issues arising in mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and bankruptcies, and the design and implementation of qualified and non-qualified retirement and benefits programs including ESOPs, defined benefit and defined contribution plans, cash balance programs, non-qualified deferred compensation plans, stock option and other equity participation programs, VEBAs and SERPs.

For the past four years, John was the national President of one of the largest U.S. employee benefits professional organizations, the Worldwide Employee Benefits Network.  John frequently speaks on various employee benefits topics and has been quoted and interviewed in numerous magazines and newspapers regionally and nationally.

• WEB – The Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (Immediate Past National President, Former President of the Cleveland Chapter)  
• Benefits Council of Cleveland
• Metropolitan Bar Association (Past Chairman of the Business and Tax Committee)
• Advisory Board, Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (2010-2011)

 Most Recent Publications

• "You Better Get Your Assets Moving: Are Participant Contributions Being Contributed to Your Plan on a Timely Basis?" RBMA Monthly Legal Update Digest July 2012
• "Update on being a Fiduciary" Cleveland Chapter of SHRM May 2012
• "Four lessons private companies can learn from public companies about compensating their executives," Smart Business Magazine, March 2012
• "Are defined benefit plans going the way of the dinosaurs or simply evolving?" RBMA Monthly Legal Update Digest February 2012
• "Tough Economy Creates Tough Decisions for Pension Plans," RBMA Monthly Legal Update Digest December 2011

• Named in Ohio Super Lawyers four times 

• The Old Stone Education Center (Board of Directors and Executive Committee)
• Jewish Family Service Association (Vice Chairman of the Board and Executive Committee)
• American Technion Society (Former Board Member, Cleveland Chapter)
• Detroit Mercy Law School (Former Dean's Advisory Committee)
• Jewish Federation of Cleveland (Retirement Committee and Chairman of the 403(b) Committee)