Thomas C. Graves

Thomas C. Graves, who died in 2023 at age 88, earned distinction as one of the most respected Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) attorneys in the Kansas City employee benefits community. Tom was inducted in 2001 as a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”).

Tom graduated with a B.A. in history from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri in 1957 and a J.D. from the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law in 1960. Tom began his legal career in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. After a tour of duty in Vietnam in the early 1960s, he continued to serve in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring as a Colonel in 1987.

As an employee benefits trust officer from 1964 to 1975 for the First National Bank of Kansas City (in 1985 known as Boatman’s First National Bank of Kansas City and in 1999 as part of Bank of America after a series of mergers and reorganizations), Tom built his knowledge of the employee benefits world with invaluable real-world experience. From 1975 to 1984, he worked in employee benefits legal support services and consulting for Meidinger & Associates (merged in 1984 with William M. Mercer, Inc., part of Marsh McLennan, and renamed and reorganized over the succeeding years) employee benefits consulting firm experiencing and working through issues in implementation stage of the then-new ERISA.

Moving to law firm practice as an employee benefits attorney, he was an of counsel and partner at the Morrison & Hecker law firm from 1984 to 2002. After a firm merger, he was partner of the Stinson Morrison & Hecker LLP (after 2019, known as Stinson LLP) law firm from 2002 to 2007 and served as Vice-Chair of its Employee Benefits Practice Division.

Tom worked at Haynes Benefits PC starting in 2007 as a shareholder in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. Coming in with more than 40 years of experience, Tom advised plan sponsors regarding the establishment, operation, and termination of employee benefit and executive compensation plans, including retirement, health, and other group welfare plans. He handled day-to-day administration questions as well as complex mergers and acquisition benefit issues. Tom retired from active practice of law in 2018, but continued to be a valued resource to lawyers within his firm.

Tom shared his wealth of knowledge as an active leader, speaker, writer, teacher, and general contributor to the greater employee benefits bar. Tom served as Chair of the American Bar Association Tax Section’s employee benefits subcommittee regarding military leaves. In 1986, Tom, together with others, including College Fellows John L. Utz and Alson R. Martin, helped found what became the Employee Benefits Institute (“EBI”), which provides an annual employee benefits conference in the Midwest. An active and long-time educator, Tom taught courses for Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (“CEBS”) certification from 1981 to 1999. (The CEBS program was established in 1976 by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.) He was active in other employee benefit organizations, including the American Benefits Council and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists.

Known by friends and family for unwavering positivity and generous spirit, he volunteered in his community enriching the lives of those around him. Clients held him in high esteem. One client shared the reason they could “sleep at night” was that they knew that “Tom [had] taken care of all of ERISA’s tortuous requirements.” Known by colleagues as being thorough in his practice, dedicated to his clients and the practice of law, and honorable, Tom was a role model. One of his former colleagues noted about Tom, “that’s how an attorney should practice law.”

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010.