Kara Brunk is a partner in Smith Anderson's Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice group. Kara has extensive experience designing and documenting employer-sponsored qualified retirement, group health and welfare benefit programs. Kara’s representative experience includes advising public, private, governmental and non-profit employers on a wide range of compliance issues ranging from day-to-day plan administration to correcting operational errors that have jeopardized the plan’s tax-qualified status. Kara routinely represents employers before the Internal Revenue Service on issues such as obtaining determination letters, appealing penalties assessed under the Affordable Care Act and correcting errors under IRS compliance programs. Kara was selected for inclusion in the inaugural 2021 edition of Best Lawyers®: Ones to Watch.
Kara served as the President of Triangle Benefits Forum, a not-for-profit organization focused on networking and educational opportunities for employee benefit industry professionals, from 2016-2019 and regularly presents on changes in the law and compliance strategies to educate human resources leaders and advisors.