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The Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), in an April 2024 follow-up to IRS Notice 2023-2, issued proposed regulations dealing with the one-percent excise tax under Internal Revenue...more
Berman v. Comm’r, released on July 16, 2024, is a great example of making lemonade when life hands you a lemon. Although the taxpayers lost the federal income tax deferral of a stock sale to an employee stock ownership plan...more
As part of the comprehensive “SECURE 2.0” retirement plan legislation enacted in December 2022, Congress directed the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to issue a long delayed and much needed regulation defining the term...more
In recent years, a growing number of construction companies have established employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). The interest in an ESOP is often generated by the need for an exit strategy for one or more of the owners of...more
The decision in Bolton v. Inland Fresh Seafood Corp. of America Inc., No. 22-cv-4602 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 5, 2023)should serve as a reminder to all ERISA practitioners that, if litigating in courts of the Eleventh Circuit,...more
On November 28, three participants in Central States Manufacturing, Inc.’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) filed a complaint on their own behalf and on behalf of other ESOP participants against the company, its board of...more
On August 9, the IRS issued a news release, IR-2023-144, warning taxpayers and advisors of “numerous compliance issues” with ESOPs, such as “valuation issues with employee stock,” “prohibited allocation of shares to...more
ESOPs can pay fair market value for the stock: Stock purchased by an ESOP must be appraised by an independent third party expert working with a trustee for the ESOP who must also be independent from the seller. The ESOP is...more
There were several significant legal developments relating to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) last year. This information memo will summarize a few of the most important developments. ...more
The board of directors of Bowers + Kubota Consulting, Inc. recently won an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciary/breach case brought against them by the Department of Labor. See Walsh v. Bowers, et al., No....more
The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of an ERISA employer-stock drop putative class action, holding that the plaintiff’s failure to identify specific, viable alternative actions that plan fiduciaries should have...more
Ensure that You are Equipped with the Latest Updates and Strategies to Prevent, Manage and Defend Against Rising, Costly ERISA Disputes - This annual event is your best opportunity to gain best practices for your everyday...more
A federal trial court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a participant in an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) claiming that fiduciaries of the ESOP caused it to overpay for stock of the company in a leveraged transaction....more
On August 13, 2018, as part of the John S. McCain Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, President Trump signed into law the Main Street Employee Ownership Act, which was originally introduced by Senator...more
The ESOP industry is paying close attention to a Tenth Circuit appeal that will address the deferral of corporate deductions for certain accrued expenses payable to ESOP-participating employees. This appeal, which pertains to...more
• The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) closed out 2017 by entering into yet another settlement agreement with the trustee of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). • The latest agreement (the Alpha Agreement) requires Alpha...more
Over the years, employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) have evolved in many ways. Currently, ESOP transactions began to resemble traditional M&A transactions including financial structures, warrants and market rate sub-debt....more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court invited the Solicitor General to file a brief expressing the government’s views on a petition for certiorari asking the Court to decide whether ERISA permits a cause of action for...more
On August 25, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Allen v. GreatBanc Trust Co., No. 15-3569, 2016 WL 4474730 (7th Cir. 2016), held that (1) the defendant in an ERISA case, rather than the plaintiff,...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit's Aug. 25, 2016, decision in Allen v. GreatBanc Trust Co., No. 15-3569, made it the first court in a published opinion to expressly reject Fifth Third Bancorp v....more
On Sept. 1, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued its decision in the Antioch employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciary litigation. The court held that the Antioch Board of Directors...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed on May 3, 2016, the holdings of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on numerous issues involving the sale of closely held stock from a...more
In the wake of Fifth Third v. Dudenhoeffer, a complaint that seeks to hold an ERISA fiduciary liable for failing to divest a plan of employer stock based solely upon publicly available information fails to state a plausible...more
In my recent blog post about Employee Stock Ownership Plans (“ESOPS”), I discussed how the plans are treated differently under the Department of Veterans Affairs’ program (the “VA Program”) for Veteran-Owned and...more
Did the future course of “stock-drop” litigation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) against fiduciaries of public company employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) take a sharp turn on June 25, 2014, when...more