Groom Law Group, Chartered

Principal

Louis Mazawey brings decades of experience as an authority on the tax aspects of employee benefits in all forms to his work at Groom.

As counsel to major insurance companies and a variety of plan sponsors—including corporate employers, trade associations, and public retirement systems—Lou has worked closely with qualified plans, 403(b) and 457 plans, IRAs, employee stock ownership plans, executive compensation, retiree medical benefits, plan terminations, mergers and spinoffs, the tax treatment of plan participants, unrelated business income tax, and the use of life insurance and annuities in employee benefit programs.

Lou has helped develop and implement a wide variety of benefit strategies involving, among other things: creative uses of insurance products in qualified and nonqualified benefit plans and trusts; innovative approaches for pre-funding retiree medical and life insurance benefits or for moving the liabilities themselves off the balance sheet; strategies for using surplus pension assets, including 401(h) accounts and providing other non-pension benefits; and techniques for de-risking pension liabilities, including retiree cash-outs and annuity transactions.

Employee Benefits Committee Member, American Bar Association Charter Member, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel President, Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy (2016-present) Board Member, Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA (2019-present)

Georgetown University Law Center J.D. New York University B.A., Phi Beta Kappa