- 47 - Dividends were credited to the policy, and insurance charges were taken out of each of the policies to pay for the cost of providing the covered employee with life insurance coverage. STEP applied a factor to the cash value of the life insurance policy on the covered employee’s life in order to compute the benefit payable to the employee. The insurance policies (or the cash derived therefrom) were distributed to VRD/RTD’s participating employees without regard to STEP’s purported computation of the allowable amounts of severance benefits. XV. Dr. Domingo’s Receipt of Plan Benefits On April 3, 1997, Dr. Domingo wrote to Mr. Katz requesting a “legal opinionated [sic] letter” regarding his “intent to retire within the time period of 3 years” for “business reasons and for continuity of our surgical group.” Dr. Domingo requested that any response be sent to him “Personal and Confidential.” Mr. Katz relayed Dr. Domingo’s letter to Mr. Pagano. On May 1, 1997, Mr. Pagano advised Dr. Domingo that he would receive full benefits under the STEP criteria of “good cause” and “genuine business purpose” if he resigned after being asked to retire. Mr. Pagano advised Dr. Domingo that he would not qualify for benefits if he agreed to work for VRD/RTD in a different capacity. On March 21, 2001, Dr. Domingo informed Teplitzky & Co. that on January 1, 1999, he “retired completely from my surgicalPage: Previous 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 NextLast modified: March 27, 2008