About the Author

S. Derrin Watson, J.D., received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from BYU.  In 1980 he graduated fifth in his class from UCLA Law School.  Formerly the tax partner of a Beverly Hills law firm, Mr. Watson is now a tax attorney in solo practice in Santa Barbara, California.  There he specializes in advising plan sponsors and their advisors about issues relating to leased employees, controlled groups, and affiliated service groups.  He is also employed by SunGard  Corbel and works with their Denver division in giving seminars and webcasts.

He has been involved with qualified plans since 1977 and had his first case involving controlled groups shortly thereafter.  He has maintained a strong interest in this area ever since and has become the leading authority on controlled group, affiliated service group, and leased employee issues.  He lectures frequently for ASPA, NIPA, and Western Pension Benefits Conference.  He is a Contributing Editor of the Journal of Pension Benefits and authors the “Who’s the Employer” column on the BenefitsLink web site.  He published the first edition of this book in 1998.  He recently began operating the www.employerbook.com web site which provides resources and information on the topics discussed in this book.

Mr. Watson is also the managing partner of the Pension Information eXchange (PIX) computer BBS and has written the software used on the PIX system.  He developed his expertise in controlled group and leased employee issues in large measure by responding to questions from PIX subscribers.  For more information about PIX, go to www.pixpc.com.

He has a wife, two sons, and four cats.  His carried experiences range from doing standup comedy (yes, even about ERISA) to serving as a Mormon missionary in Iran, to editing and writing books and newsletters on a variety of topics.  He directs his church choir, and enjoys punctuating his ERISA presentations with songs.