Mr. Tour is of counsel in the Vorys Columbus office and a member of the labor and employment practice group.  He has broad employee benefits expertise and practices in the areas of pension, deferred compensation and welfare benefit plans.  Mr. Tour also counsels clients regarding benefits issues in mergers and acquisitions.

Career highlights include:

• Experience with employee benefits issues in mergers and acquisitions, tax-qualified plans, welfare benefit plans, nonqualified deferred compensation, and ERISA Title I issues
• Counseling clients on employee benefits issues arising in mergers and acquisitions, such as identifying plans and evaluating potential assumed liabilities, compliance with statutory requirements, and allocating post-merger liabilities
• Counseling clients on employee benefits issues arising during collective bargaining
• Counseling companies regarding employee benefit policies, implementing and updating employee benefit plans and obtaining favorable government rulings, determination and opinion letters
• Dealing with welfare plan issues regarding Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) portability and privacy rules, cafeteria plans, Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) extended medical benefits, retiree medical issues, Voluntary Employee Benefit Advisors (VEBA) deduction rules, and unrelated business taxable income rules
• Developing nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements, prohibited transaction and fiduciary breach allegations, reversion issues and ERISA preemption issues

Mr. Tour is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, the Georgia Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar.

Mr. Tour is a frequent presenter on a variety of topics related to tax-qualified employee benefit plans.

Mr. Tour received his J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School and his B.A. cum laude from Syracuse University.

Publications

• “Early Retirement Window Benefits Under Final Section 401(a)(4) Regulations,” Maxwell Macmillian Pension and Profit Sharing Pension Bulletin, 1991 
• “Plan Termination Update:  Impact of Pension Protection Act of 1987,” Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal, 1988
• “Complex Temporary Regulations Cover Plan Compensation,” The Journal of Taxation, 1988
• “Overview of Proposed Regulations on Single-Employer Plan Terminations under SEPPAA,” Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal, 1987

Professional and Community Activities

• The Arthritis Foundation of Central Ohio, Board of Directors, 2002-present