Should you consider establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) for your employees?

Transcription

1 n p oy Shap g You Wor d What s Inside 1 Will an ESOP Work for You? 2 E-Filing for Defined Benefit Plans 3 PPA Update 4 Putting It All Together 4 Don t Throw Your Money Away In Every Issue 1 Dorn s Corner 2 Client of the Quarter 5 What s Happenin Published By Swerdlin & Company Atuaries and Employee Benefit Consultants 5901 Peahtree Dunwoody Road Building B Suite 170 Atlanta, GA info@swerdlin.net Committee Chairman: Carol Friend Committee Members: Julie Isom, Donna Martin, Adam Pozek, Dorn Swerdlin, and Joanne Swerdlin Layout & Design: Stephanie Davis Editorial Assistane: Dee Robbins Additional Contributors: Jayne Cormier, Mike Raker, and Cynthia Navan-Clark. Will an ESOP Work for You? Should you onsider establishing an Employee Stok Ownership Plan (ESOP) for your employees? An ESOP an be a great finanial tool for an owner who is looking to retire in the near future. For example, an owner an reeive fair value for a losely-held ompany even though there may not be a ready market. Selling shares in the ompany helps provide inome for retirement planning, as well as providing ash for new ventures. Another reason for onsidering an ESOP is to avoid an outside buyer who may hange the ompany ulture and your philosophy of doing business. Providing an ESOP to employees adds a ompetitive edge by attrating new hires and enouraging employees to stay with the ompany. Not only does it offer a retirement benefit - it also provides employees with a sense of ownership, pride in their ompany, and an inentive to work harder to grow the ompany and make its value greater for them as owners. We list below some of the advantages for a C Corp ESOP: The seller may be eligible to defer tax on gains; Dorn s Corner This quarter I want to disuss a law I reently learned about, the Law of Attration. The good thing about this law is that it works whether you understand it or believe in it, just as does the law of gravity. My introdution to the Law of Attration ame to me from the DVD entitled The Seret. Joanne and I are taking a six-week ourse taught by Linda Sherer whih is based on the Law of Attration. Basially the law says that like attrats like. More speifially, thoughts attrat similar thoughts. What you fous on is what you attrat into your life. This idea is onsistent with quantum physis whih says 1 The ompany an take a tax dedution for dividend payments; and The prinipal and interest payments passed through the ESOP as ontributions are fully dedutible up to the IRS limits. Below are some advantages to an S Corp ESOP: The prinipal and interest payments passed through the ESOP as ontributions are dedutible up to 25% of eligible ompensation; and Company profits shared by the ESOP are tax free. ontinued on page 6 that the observer reates or manifests reality by fousing attention on something. This is known as the ollapse of the quantum wave equation whih brings to life one possibility among an infinite array of possibilities. Everything in the universe is energy vibrating at different frequenies. Albert Einstein proved in his famous equation E=m 2 that matter and energy are the same. Thoughts have vibrations, emotions have vibrations, and even matter has vibrations. Whatever you fous on vibrates at a ertain frequeny and resonates with similar frequenies in the universe. ontinued on page 5

2 Medial Dotor Assoiates We are pleased to present Medial Dotor Assoiates (MDA) as our Client of the Quarter. We provide administrative servies for their ESOP and ompliane servies for their 401(k) plan. We would first like to ongratulate MDA on being named the 2007 ESOP Company of the Year by the New South Chapter of the National ESOP Assoiation. They have now been nominated for the 2007 award for the National ESOP Company of the Year. The winner will be announed at the National ESOP Conferene in May in Washington, D.C. MDA, founded by Ken Shumard in 1987, is a national medial staffing ompany headquartered in Atlanta, GA. MDA provides omplete medial staffing solutions in both loum tenens and permanent plaement for the healthare ommunity. MDA has been in operation for nearly 20 years and is reognized as the quality leader in healthare staffing. The ompany beame 100% employee owned on January 1, The ESOP allows the employees a higher level of satisfation and pride in their work. It also affords them the opportunity to share with MDA in building their own wealth towards retirement. Continuing eduation is a high priority within the MDA ulture. Coursework is provided to employees through the ompany s Corporate University, MDA U. Continuous learning opportunities are onsistent with the MDA ore values. MDA U was founded in 2004 and seeks to inrease and share knowledge within the organization. It is a multi-trak framework designed to align learning with ritial business needs and hallenges. It is internally driven and its faulty onsists mostly of employees who are among some of the top reruiters, performers, and subjet-matter experts in the industry. Employees are enouraged to partiipate and grow by pursuing degree programs or just by seleting from one of the 50 ourses urrently available to inrease skills and solve business problems. Courses range from Sales 101 to Conflit Resolution and are as speifi as Goal Setting and Time Management. Some of the offerings involve ourses speifi to the ESOP. Please visit the MDA website at to learn more about their ompany and their philosophy in doing business. E-Filing for Defined Benefit Plans The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) provides a method for you to voluntarily submit premium filings and premiums over a seure web-based program for your defined benefit plan. This program is alled My Plan Administration Aount (My PAA). For plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2007, e-filing is MANDATORY. If you need any assistane with the e-filings, please all your Client Manager. 2

3 PPA UPDATE We re sure you have heard a lot about The Pension Protetion At (PPA) and the rules beoming effetive over the next several years. There are, however, some key PPA provisions that are already with us. As of January 1, 2007, plan sponsors and their advisors have guidane for seleting an appropriate default plan investment for those partiipants who do not diret the investment of their ontributions. Aording to a proposal from the Department of Labor (DOL), employers who selet a Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA), and provide notie to plan partiipants, are deemed to have satisfied their fiduiary responsibility for investing those ontributions. QDIAs are generally a balaned fund, lifeyle/target retirement date fund, or a professionally managed aount. The DOL is urrently onsidering requests to add money market and stable value funds to the list of approved alternatives. Also effetive for 2007 is a new rule allowing plan sponsors to hire an advisor to provide investment advie diretly to their partiipants. These advisors must aknowledge their fiduiary status in writing and work on a fee-for-servie basis, or provide the advie exlusively through a omputer model ertified to be unbiased. If employers use a prudent proess to selet an advisor who is qualified, and monitor that advisor on an ongoing basis, they are not held liable for the advie given or any resulting investment transations. In the wake of various orporate sandals, many ompanies offering ompany stok as an investment option allowed partiipants more latitude for diversifying their stok holdings. Beginning in 2007, PPA has reated a new right to mandatory diversifiation. Publi ompanies offering stok in their partiipant-direted defined ontribution plans must allow employees to diversify their own ontributions out of ompany stok immediately. Employer ontributions, suh as math and profit sharing, an be diversified upon ompletion of three years of servie. Partiipants subjet to this new rule must be provided notifiation 30 days prior to their eligibility to diversify. There is an exemption for stand-alone Employee Stok Ownership Plans that do not hold salary deferrals or employer math funds. The Eonomi Growth and Tax Relief Reoniliation At of 2001 (EGTRRA) aelerated the maximum vesting on employer mathing ontributions to either a 3-year liff shedule or a 2/20-graded shedule. For plan years beginning in 2007, PPA adds these same vesting requirements for all profit sharing ontributions. Also for 2007, PPA inludes a new mandate for providing partiipant benefit statements. For partiipant-direted defined ontribution plans, plan sponsors must provide quarterly statements that inlude not only aount ativity and vesting, but a statement on the importane of investment diversifiation, as well as a link to the DOL s website for more information. Plans that integrate their profit sharing 3 ontributions with soial seurity must inlude an additional dislosure to that effet. Defined ontribution plans that are not partiipant-direted must provide a similar statement at least one per year. In a reent Field Assistane Bulletin, the DOL noted that statements should generally be provided within 45 days following the end of the reporting period. Partiipant-direted plans that are only updated annually, or non-direted plans that are not updated within that 45 day period, an satisfy the new requirement by providing a statement inluding the most reent information available. Twenty eight states have laws preventing employers from withholding amounts from employees payheks without the onsent of, or an affirmative eletion by, those employees. These laws have prevented employers in those states from adopting automati enrollment in their 401(k) plans. As of August 17, 2006, ERISA pre-empts those state withholding laws for plans that provide the required QDIA notie (desribed above). Additional PPA provisions will beome effetive in the oming years, but many signifiant hanges are already in plae. While some of these hanges are benefiial to plan sponsors and/or partiipants, they also impose new dislosure and other requirements that must be met. Please ontat us with your questions on how the new rules may impat you or your plan.

4 Putting It All Together Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the senes in getting our Swerdlin Quarterly out to you? First we would like to introdue the Swerdlin Newsletter Committee and desribe their roles: Dorn Swerdlin The newsletter was his reation he wanted something personal something generated by us. Dorn is the author of Dorn s Corner and he helps to selet topis for the artiles we write. Joanne Swerdlin Joanne helps with the Client of the Quarter. She also assists in editing artiles and adding the finishing touhes. Carol Friend Carol has been the Newsletter Committee Chairman sine its reation 13 years ago. Carol is definitely the boss! She makes the final deision on the artiles and who will write them, and she makes ertain everyone gets their artiles in on a timely basis. Carol also authors the regularly featured Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and the What s Happenin olumn. Julie Isom and Donna Martin Julie and Donna are members of the ommittee. They have input on the topis hosen and usually write one or two of the artiles for the newsletter eah quarter. Dee Robbins Dee is a blessing to the ommittee. She helps us all look good. She reviews the artiles submitted by the ommittee for ontent as well as grammar and puntuation. She edits and makes hanges to the artiles submitted by the ommittee. She edits, and edits, and edits! Adam Pozek Adam writes artiles on urrent events in the pension world. He also reviews our artiles for tehnial auray. Stephanie Davis Stephanie makes the newsletter look pretty. She does the layout of the artiles, reates the artwork, takes the photographs, and deals diretly with the printer. Along with Carol and Dee, she reviews the final proof and gives the final go ahead for the mailing. The Newsletter Committee has several meetings throughout the quarter. The proess for ompleting a newsletter takes approximately 2 months from the first meeting to the mailing date. In addition to the writers on the Newsletter Committee, we also inlude artiles from other Swerdlin staff members, inluding representatives of the atuarial, afeteria and health and welfare teams. We are proud of the fat that everything is done in-house, and that we are now beginning our 13 th year of publishing The Swerdlin Quarterly. Don t Throw Your Money Away! Swerdlin & Company provides Cafeteria Plan administration and, over the years, we have heard all the reasons why employees don t enroll in afeteria plans. We would like to share some of them with you, along with our reasons why they should enroll. R e a s o n 1 : I m single and I never go to the dotor. Our response: A afeteria plan doesn t just over visits to your dotor s offie. It overs items suh as glasses, ontats and dental expenses. Also, hanes are you will get sik sometime during the year. Even though you don t go to the dotor, you an use your afeteria plan for over-the-ounter mediations, suh as ough and flu mediine. R e a s o n 2 I don t think I will save enough to make it worthwhile to partiipate. Our response: Based on your tax rate, you an save 20 35% on your medial expenses by enrolling in a afeteria plan. Your ontributions to the Cafeteria Plan are made with before-tax money. By paying with before-tax money, you are saving 20% to 35% of the ost. R e a s o n 3 : I don t like the use it or lose it feature of the afeteria plan. Our response: It is true that you ould lose any unused money in your afeteria plan. However, the IRS has allowed an additional 2-1/2 months after the end of the plan year to inur and submit your expenses. This means you now have 14-1/2 months to use your money. R e a s o n 4 : I have to wait too long to be reimbursed for my expenses. Our response: Swerdlin & Company reimburses laims daily and an deposit your reimbursement diretly into your heking or savings aount. Also, we offer debit ards that an be used to pay for your expenses. With the debit ard, you have instant aess to the funds in your afeteria aount. Do you have any employees who are hesitant about enrolling in your afeteria plan? Swerdlin & Company fouses on eduating employees and helping them make informed deisions. We ondut enrollment meetings and answer your employees questions. For more information, please ontat Cynthia Navan-Clark at

5 Dorn s Corner ontinued from page 1 Negative thoughts vibrate with negative energies in the universe and attrat negative experienes to you like a magnet. Similarly, positive thoughts attrat positive experienes. An example of vibrational resonane is found in tuning forks. Set up two rows of tuning forks in a room, eah row with a set of notes A, B, C, et. If you strike the B note on the tuning fork in one row, only the B tuning fork in the other row will vibrate or resonate with the first fork. The universe works the same way with thoughts. Thoughts have different vibrations and a thought will resonate only with thoughts of a similar vibration. The vibrations don t reognize the not in your thoughts, so thinking about not doing or being something will attrat what you don t want right bak to you. The ombination of positive thoughts and emotions is a powerful tool to bring positive experienes and things into your life. This onept is muh different from the idea of positive thinking whih an ause denial of your not-so-omfortable feelings. Suh denial an ause suppression of real feelings whih beome stuk and ause stress and disease. The Law of Attration simply says how you think and feel will bring you similar thoughts and emotions. This does not mean that you repress or deny negative thoughts, but rather you beome aware of your negative thoughts and shift to fous on what you want. You are always reating and manifesting your life, so why not manifest what you want? So, how do we use this Law of Attration to our benefit? As I said above, fous on what you want What s Happenin We welome the following new employees this quarter: Trish Brown, Pam Herrera, Peggy Jones, Roxanne Rutty and Shenita Spivery to DayPak and Linda Matthews to the Atuarial Team. Congratulations to several of our employees who reently passed exams sponsored by the Amerian Soiety of Pension Professionals and Atuaries (ASPPA): Adrian Johnson, Kathy Latour, Susan Petrirena and Adam Stone. rather than what you don t want. An example shown in The Seret is a person who is in debt and always thinks, I wish I ould get out of debt. Even though he thinks about NOT having or getting OUT of debt, his fous is still on debt. The Law of Attration brings to him more debt beause his fous is debt. The Seret reommends that you think, feel and visualize how it would be to have finanial freedom and live in abundane and this is what you will attrat! The DVD says the thought of gratitude is the most powerful type of thought. If you think about being grateful for the things you have, the universe will bring you more things to be grateful for. I introdued an exerise in our offie to generate more gratitude within our ulture. This is in line with my Delaration for 2007, The Year of Corporate Culture. Eah employee is to list three things about eah member of their team for whih they are grateful. In our monthly meeting we will ask people to stand up and read their gratitude list. This should add more gratitude within our ulture and enourage everyone to work better together. I reated three wants or wishes for myself. The first speifies a ertain physial status I want to attain by August 1, The seond want is to write and publish a book by the end of The third fouses on two We are pleased to announe the promotion of Adam Pozek to Vie President. Adam heads up our Consulting and Compliane Team. Anniversaries we are elebrating this quarter: Carol Friend, 15 years; Susan Petrirena, 12 years; Julie Isom and Kim Hall, 10 years; Melodi Kline, 8 years; Randy Pflueger, 7 years; Sharon Kleiman, Mike Raker and Kristen Hamilton, 3 years; Marie O Sullivan, 2 years; Kirsty Simmons, 1 year. 5 things I want for Swerdlin & Company by One is where I want us to be finanially and the other is that we beome an employee owned ompany by then. We ll see if the Law of Attration works to enhane our orporate ulture and if I am granted my personal wishes. I reommend you wath The Seret DVD, listen to the audio CD, or read the book. Then go reate your dream world I would love to hear stories about how this law works for you! Welome New Employees! Left to right. Front row: Candie Selby and Rebea Byers. Seond row: Kristin Ellis, Linda Matthews, and Trish Brown. Third row: Pam Herrera and Peggy Jones. Fourth Row: Eri Myers and Kirsty Simmons. Bak row: Roxanne Rutty and Shenita Spivery. Donna Martin and Connie Woodmansee attended an S Corp Seminar hosted by the ESOP Assoiation in Orlando in February. Adam Pozek spoke at the ASPPA 401(k) Summit in San Diego in February. Dorn and Joanne Swerdlin, Susan Petrirena, Karen Mirale, Lee Swerdlin and Dee Robbins attended the 2007 Southeast Regional ESOP Conferene in St. Augustine in Marh. Karen Mirale partiipated in one of the panel presentations.

6 Will an ESOP Work for You? ontinued from page 1 An ideal andidate for an ESOP is a mature ompany with ash flow suffiient to support debt payments on a leveraged ESOP. In a leveraged ESOP, a loan is taken out by the ESOP to buy the ompany stok. Ideally, the ompany should have at least 20 employees; the equity value should be at least $5,000,000; and the ESOP should purhase at least 30% to 50% of the ompany. A feasibility study is the first step in determining whether an ESOP is right for your ompany. This study analyzes the ompany s projeted ash flow and its ability to make ontributions to repay the ESOP loan. The study determines if annual payroll is suffiient to allow full dedution of the loan payments. A valuation of the ompany is done to ensure that the ESOP does not pay more than market value. It is extremely important to engage an attorney who is experiened in the speifi regulations governing an ESOP. An individually designed doument is prepared based on what your ompany is trying to aomplish. As already mentioned, you will need a feasibility study and valuation of the ompany by experts in those fields. Additionally, you will want to get input from your aountants, interview lenders, and onsider an outside ESOP trustee. You will also want to bring in your ESOP administrative firm as soon as possible so you have a strong team of advisors and nothing falls through the raks. In summary, an ESOP is only as suessful as the ompany sponsoring it. We at Swerdlin & Company provide administrative servies for 70 ESOP ompanies. We see firsthand how ompanies that make an effort to ommuniate their ESOPs, and work to promote an ownership ulture, see dramati results in the growth of their ompany. We work with some amazing ESOP ompanies who have experiened signifiant growth in revenue and have some great stories to tell. If you are interested in pursuing the idea of an ESOP for your ompany, please give us a all. We an help you get started. Vision Statement We strive for finanial strength for our lients, our employees and our ompany by aring to be the best. We are ommitted to be the leading employee benefit onsulting firm in our market. We ahieve this through ooperative teamwork, ommunity building and ontinuous learning and development. Mission Statement We fous primarily on design and administration of all types of employee benefit plans. Our mission is to develop relationships with our lients, our employees and our ommunity so that all parties grow and develop finanially and otherwise. Shaping Your Benefits World Knowing the omplexities and understanding the hoies and options available in the benefits world shouldn t be a fous of your job; it s a fous of ours. We help you shape your benefits program to better meet the needs and goals of your ompany and your employees. Swerdlin & Company is the only resoure you need to answer all of your benefit questions. Our job is to make yours easier! Swerdlin & Company Atuaries Employee Benefit Consultants 5901 Peahtree Dunwoody Road Building B Suite 170 Atlanta, GA info@swerdlin.net PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID COLUMBUS, GA PERMIT NO. 99