Live Webinars

Determining the value of ESOP shares requires complicated, regulated analysis, but everyone connected with the ESOP needs to know the basics. This webinar will serve as an overview for people who just want to understand the key concepts of ESOP valuation or as a foundation on which to learn more advanced valuation topics.

ESOPs can transform businesses into high-performance organizations. But to do that, companies need to find ways to fully engage employee-owners and develop an effective ownership culture. Employee surveys are a good way to engage employees and gauge their perspectives on the fundamental aspect of your ownership culture and what needs to be done to move forward. 

Join us for a look into the latest developments in the employee ownership community with Executive Director Loren Rodgers.

We will talk about tools and techniques to communicate effectively about valuation in your own company, including actual examples of ways that some companies communicate about valuation to your workforce. This session is appropriate for people who will be doing their company's internal valuation communication.

How do you engage your employee-owners? Once engaged, how do you follow through? In this session, we will provide examples of engaging employee-owners and how to maintain momentum. We will present a case scenario of the Ownership Rewards Program at DCS Corporation. 

ESOP Administrative Committees can play a variety of roles. Most commonly, they either are the fiduciary or direct the fiduciary. In both cases, they also make sure that plan administration is properly handled. This webinar will explore who should be on it for how long? What kinds of information should they gather? How should they communicate with employees? If they are directing a trustee, how can they make that interaction most useful? What are some examples of don't do that's administrative committees have stubbed their toes on?

An understanding of recent developments in litigation brought by ESOP participants and the DOL, and in DOL investigations and IRS audits, can help to avoid problems with regulators and to be prepared to deal with trouble if it comes. Join members of the McDermott Will & Emery ESOP Litigation team for a discussion of the lessons all ESOP owned companies, fiduciaries and advisors should be focusing on in 2020.

This webinar will explore important considerations when planning leadership succession at the C-Suite level, in service to the successful sustainability of your employee-owned company.

The legal issues discussed in the first webinar in our series on S corporation ESOPs have important implications for the administration of your ESOP. Make sure that your company is compliant with the complex rules and procedural requirements for effectively running an ESOP in an S corporation. 

Executives who will work well in an ESOP environment have a different profile from non-ESOP leaders. Therefore, when hiring for leadership roles, ESOPs must create a different set of criteria by which to evaluate; the standard models do not apply. 

Sustainability is the concept of utilizing a resource in a manner that enables longevity. In an ESOP company, the concept relates specifically to perpetuating the ESOP while maintaining the health of the business. ESOP policy decisions are generally established at the inception of the plan when there is not a clear understanding of how such decisions will influence the business as it matures.

Recent Federal legislation resulted in increased long-term capital gains tax rates. As a result, more business owners are expressing their interest for tax-deferred sales to ESOPs. As the selling shareholder to an ESOP, you have the option to pay the capital gains tax created by the sale, or if you are eligible, you can elect section §1042 of the Internal Revenue Code. Electing §1042 allows the selling shareholder(s) to defer the capital gains tax in connection with the sale to an ESOP, and if structured properly would result in a permanent avoidance of paying the capital gains tax.