Blue Ridge ESOP Associates Industry News

During this pandemic season, ESOP companies are making a difference, and Blue Ridge wants to recognize those companies and their impact.

Blue Ridge ESOP Associates is pleased to be participating in the NCEO 2020 Virtual Annual Conference this week. If you did not register for the original live conference, you can still register here. This is an excellent opportunity to have your employee owners attend a highly reputable conference, as it offers  plenty of sessions that fall under four categories: Basic ESOPs, Beyond the Basics, Leadership & Governance, and Communications & Culture.

The ESOP Association is diligently working in Washington on behalf of all ESOPs.  Below is the information that they shared to all of their members*.

Blue Ridge ESOP Associates prides itself in preparing this quarterly newsletter to share information with our clients.  The most important item on everyone’s minds currently is the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There is a lot of information coming out about the CARES Act, and we want to make sure our clients are immediately informed.

One piece of information that is timely and very important for our clients is that The CARES Act that President Trump has signed has the following provision:

"In one somewhat surprising twist, the CARES Act not only eliminates RMDs for 2020, but any RMD that otherwise needed to be taken in 2019 (and thus, would have normally been required to take such a distribution by April 1st, 2020, as well as a second RMD by the end of 2020) do not have to take either their 2019 or their 2020 RMD."

The following information is from Gentry Locke Attorneys:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - March 26, 2020 - Marie Minton and Greg Washburn, the current owners of Blue Ridge ESOP Associates, are happy to announce that Levine Leichtman Capital Partners ("LLCP"), a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, has invested in Blue Ridge ESOP Associates ("Blue Ridge" or the "Company") in partnership with the existing owners and the management team. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Blue Ridge ESOP Associates continues to monitor news about the evolving spread of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, around the world.

As a mature company delivering essential services to clients like you, we have long had a plan in place. This plan ensures you will be supported regardless of events such as the spread of COVID-19. It accounts for multiple levels of business continuity and includes contingencies for everything from customer support, to IT and information security, to client services.

We are pleased to announce that Mr. Scott Freund has been promoted to Managing Director at Blue Ridge ESOP Associates. Scott has over 24 years of administration experience and has been with Blue Ridge since 2009 playing an integral role in providing administration and consulting advice to ESOP clients. Since coming to Blue Ridge, Scott has helped make our proprietary software, Blue Magic, more efficient so our professionals can spend more time consulting with our clients.  Scott has also been a valuable leader and mentor to our newer associates and has been integral in the development of our administration staff.

Blue Ridge professionals, Chad Guzinski and Renee Stadtmueller will be attending Illinois Chapter - 2020 Spring Conference in Champaign, IL on March 5. Renee will be speaking about "ESOP Accounting and Administration" which will focus on key ESOP administration and compliance considerations and the GAAP accounting treatment. Topics covered include allocation methods, funding strategies and distribution policies, diversification, segregation of terminated participants, and the respective financial statement and GAAP treatment.