You're a smart employer. You've gathered a great group of employees and developed them into a high-functioning team. They've played a big role in the growth of your company and you want to reward them by giving them a "piece of the pie." But, think twice—or three times—before you start serving up ...
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About Wendy Gilligan
How to Use a PPP Loan to Refinance ESOP Loans
Now that Congress and President Biden have extended the PPP loan application deadline to May 31, 2021, there is still time for ESOP-owned companies to consider using a PPP loan to refinance their ESOP loan. Depending on the size of the ESOP loan, a PPP loan can provide enough cash to pay off bank ...
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How An ESOP Program Is Put Together – Some Assembly Required
Updated February 8, 2021
Unlike the typical 401(k) plan, ESOPs aren't an "off-the-shelf" retirement plan.
Until recently, each ESOP plan had to be individually designed to serve a specific set of purposes. The IRS recently allowed ESOP plan documents to be more like a 401(k) plan – with ...
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Partial Withdrawal Liability – Keep Making Pension Contributions, Get Hit with a Bill Anyway
Are you considering laying off employees? Does your company contribute to a multi-employer pension fund (e.g. a union pension fund)? If so, you need to know about the partial withdrawal liability rules.
You may already know that if you stop contributing to a union pension fund, ...
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M&A Transactions: Benefits Due Diligence
Buyer's counsel brought us in on a stock sale transaction last year to handle the M&A due diligence on the seller's employee benefits. In discussing the scope of our work with seller's counsel and in-house attorneys, we laid out the options in a way that will probably seem familiar to most ...
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M&A Employee Benefits Due Diligence: An Efficient Approach
Employee benefits due diligence during a transaction can protect buyers from unpleasant surprises post-closing and give sellers a negotiating edge by ensuring that their benefits plans have a clean bill of health. It provides confidence to both sides that the benefits part of the deal is taken care ...
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ESOP Succession Planning: A Powerful Tool For Your Business
An ESOP can be a powerful succession planning tool for your business. But relatively few advisors in the marketplace know enough about ESOPs to give you the information you need. We'll give you a head start. Here are five ways an ESOP can fit, or even drive, your succession ...
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M&A Due Diligence: Retirement Plan Eligibility Mistakes That Can Surface in Transactions
As part of M&A due diligence we review for plan eligibility errors, one of the IRS's noted top 10 most common retirement plan errors submitted to its Voluntary Correction Program. According to the IRS, this mistake most often surfaces as a result of a merger or acquisition. In this episode of ...
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No Fooling: New Rules For An SBA-Guaranteed ESOP Loan Took Effect April 1
The changes that the Main Street Employee Ownership Act made to the Small Business Administration's lending rules for ESOP transactions are now in effect. The revised rule makes an SBA-guaranteed ESOP loan potentially more attractive for sellers who want to sell their companies to an ESOP but do ...
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