OTHER ESOP SERVICES
BSI's combined staff of professional ESOP advisors, lawyers, administrators, and appraisers provides BSI's clients with all of the ancillary services needed to maintain and operate their ESOPs, including the following:

Feasibility Studies
Based on their many years of experience in designing and installing ESOPs, our ESOP Advisors can in most cases readily determine if an ESOP is feasible in your situation by simply reviewing your company's recent financial history and then discussing your goals and objectives with you. In those cases where your outside shareholders or lenders require a formal feasibility study, our ESOP advisors can prepare a custom-designed feasibility study containing various financial models and projections that illustrate how the ESOP can best be designed to provide the maximum possible tax and financial benefits for your shareholders.

Employee Communications
Our staff includes employee communications professionals who specialize in developing and presenting customized PowerPoint presentations to new and existing ESOP participants. They have years of experience in making ESOP presentations, and are fully prepared to answer any and all questions about the design and operation of ESOPs.

Key Employee Incentive Plans
As and when requested, our legal staff will work with you to design and draft key employee incentive plans that are designed to provide additional equity incentives for key employees over and above their allocations of company stock within the ESOP. Depending upon your goals and objectives, these incentive plans may take the form of a Stock Purchase Plan, a Stock Option Plan, a Management Stock Bonus Plan, Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs) Plan or a Phantom Stock Plan. We will work with your management team to determine which plan or plans will best accomplish your objectives, and we will then draft the documents needed to implement your selection.

Repurchase Liability Studies
As and when needed, we will work with your ESOP staff to develop near-term forecasts of your ESOP repurchase liability. In those cases where a formal repurchase liability study is required by your lender or by your outside trustee, we will work with your ESOP staff and an outside specialist in repurchase liability studies to develop long-term repurchase liability forecasts.

IRC 409(p) Analysis and Certifications
In the case of S corporation ESOPs, failure to comply with the requirements of IRC Section 409(p) can cause the ESOP to lose its tax exemption, incur substantial penalties and result in Plan disqualification. To prevent this from happening, our administration staff can prepare a preliminary Section 409(p) analysis for your Plan prior to the end of each Plan Year to determine if the projected allocations are likely to result in violating the requirements of Section 409(p). If the analysis indicates a high probability that a violation will occur, our administration staff, together with our legal staff, can suggest options and alternatives to prevent a Section 409(p) violation. In those cases where your lender or trustee wants independent verification that your ESOP is in compliance with Section 409(p), we can prepare a formal Section 409(p) Certification that the Plan is in compliance with Section 409(p).

Continuing ESOP Education
It is important that your ESOP staff members be as knowledgeable as possible regarding the mechanics and operations of ESOPs in general in order to minimize inadvertent errors and misunderstandings. Accordingly, we provide, various forms of ESOP continuing education throughout the year to our existing clients, including the following:

» Live ESOP Seminars
Each year we present over 60 full-day or half-day seminars throughout the country. These seminars cover ESOP basics from A to Z.


Learn more about our Live ESOP Seminars here

» Client Webinars
Each year we present several client webinars regarding recurring ESOP issues, such as how to deal with the ESOP repurchase liability, how to structure ESOP transactions, how to structure key employee incentive plans., etc. These webinars are designed exclusively for BSI/Menke clients.


» Technical Issues Webinars
Each year we present a six-hour webinar on ESOP Technical Issues. This is usually broken up into a series of three-hour segments that are presented on three successive days in September or October. The purpose of this webinar is to provide a more technical explanation of ESOP issues from A to Z. Again, this webinar is designed primarily for BSI/Menke clients.


Learn more about our Technical Issues Seminars here Back to Top