Blue Ridge ESOP Associates Industry News

Blue Ridge is proud to be a supporting sponsor for the Southeast Regional Virtual Meeting on September 24-25, 2020 hosted by The ESOP Association for all states included in the New South, Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic Chapters. Tom Roback, Carla Klingler, and Jon Williams will be attending this conference. This is a great opportunity for your employee-owned company to "send" multiple owners at an affordable price, as content will be geared towards "middle managers, employee owners and members of company ESOP committees".

Blue Ridge is proud to be a supporting sponsor for the Great Lakes Regional Virtual Meeting on September 22-23, 2020 hosted by The ESOP Association for all states included in the Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio/Kentucky Chapters. Tom Roback will be attending and speaking at this conference. This is a great opportunity for your employee-owned company to "send" multiple owners at an affordable price, as content will be geared towards "middle managers, employee owners and members of company ESOP committees".

The Fall ESOP Forum - September 14-16, 2020 - Join Blue Ridge at this event sponsored by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). While COVID-19 prevents us from attending in person, the NCEO has done an excellent job converting this forum into a virtual event. "Join employee-owners and ESOP experts for the Fall ESOP Forum, a three-day seminar featuring up-to-date best practices with over 40 immersive and educational sessions led by experts in the latest in employee ownership legislation, research, and communication and culture."

Blue Ridge is proud to be a supporting sponsor for the Midwest Regional Virtual Meeting on September 17-18, 2020 hosted by The ESOP Association for all midwest states included in the Iowa/Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota/Dakotas, Wisconsin and Heart of American Chapters. Our professionals, Chad Guzinski and Pam Themar will also be attending this conference. This is a great opportunity for your employee-owned company to "send" multiple owners at an affordable price, as content will be geared towards "middle managers, employee owners and members of company ESOP committees".

Blue Ridge is proud to be a supporting sponsor for the Western Regional Virtual Meeting on September 10-11, 2020 hosted by The ESOP Association for all western states included in the California/Western, Northwest, Southwest and Hawaii Chapters. Our professionals, Marie Sherlock and Randy Shrake will also be attending this conference. This is a great opportunity for your employee-owned company to "send" multiple owners at an affordable price, as content will be geared towards "middle managers, employee owners and members of company ESOP committees".

We are pleased to announce that several of our earlier conferences Blue Ridge sponsored in the  Spring & Summer 2020 were rescheduled and converted to virtual conferences. Blue Ridge professionals will be presenting at three of those conferences next week.

Dolores Lawrence will be speaking at next week's 2020 NAFE Amplified Conference. This conference is hosted by NIPA & WPB&C. Dolores will be speaking twice during this conference:

• Monday, August 17: 11:45-12:35 p.m. "Eligibility & Coverage" - Who's the Participant? What seems like a straightforward question can, in reality, be a complicated issue. Dual eligibility and job or division classification exclusions can be effective plan design tools, but also add to the complexity of administering plans. Add in rehires, seasonal employees, controlled group and affiliated service group considerations and you can have additional challenges. In this session, the speaker will provide insight into dealing with eligibility and coverage issues.
  
• Tuesday, August 18: 11:-05-11:55 a.m. "Considerations When Sponsoring an ESOP and a 401(k) Plan" - Many companies share ownership with their employees through the sponsorship of an ESOP. Most of those companies also sponsor a 401(k) plan. This type of combined retirement program can produce complications, pitfalls and special considerations for sponsorship and administration. This session will explore the key issues for the joint administration of both plans and their cohesiveness through a review of: plan design; compliance testing; and, situations unique to an ESOP as part of the benefit program.

On July 21, 2020, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced a bill to provide grants to businesses who either establish an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) or expand an existing ESOP.

The recently signed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act included changes for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) for the 2020 calendar year. These changes allow, for the 2020 calendar year only, the option to allow participants to rollover their RMDs, or to not receive a distribution at all. Typically, RMDs must be taken as a taxable distribution to the participant. As the sponsor of a retirement plan, you have a few options for how to proceed.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic may have unfortunately caused your company to close a division or location or to lay off employees. One possible impact to your ESOP or 401(k) plan due to this reduction in workforce is whether a partial plan termination (PPT) has occurred. A partial plan termination can be triggered by a single significant event or by a series of smaller events.

Over the past three months there have been a number of updates provided to the retirement community by both the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service.