All Posts tagged ESOP

An Elegant Administration Services Platform Solution for 401(k) and ESOP Plans

Every ESOP looks for efficiencies to improve productivity on the administration side of the business and to enhance communication with employees. So you need to consider an Administration Services Platform that integrates your employees’ 401(k) and ESOP information. It is put together by Jackie Salmon and her team at OneAmerica®, an Indianapolis-based financial services company, that can trace their roots back over 140 years.

OneAmerica offers a solution to meet your needs and is led by Jackie Salmon, field vice president of consulting service. Jackie, with 27 years of ESOP experience and a member of our group since 2015, has taken the time to break down the benefits of this new Administration Services Platform.

The ESOP advantages OneAmerica provides are:

  1. One relationship manager for both the ESOP and 401(k) plans
  2. One plan manager for both the ESOP and 401(k) plans
  3. An optimized, responsive website
  4. Combined statements
  5. Participant call center that is based in the U.S.
  6. Consulting team that averages more than 20 years of ESOP and employee benefits experience per person
  7. A reputation of service and access that larger carriers simply cannot provide with a company rated in the top 8 percent of all insurance companies

Want to cut to the chase and speak to Jackie Salmon and her ESOP consulting team now? Pick up the phone and call 317-285-6540 or send an email to jackie.salmon@oneamerica.com to schedule an appointment.

Leaning on the vast actuarial and employee benefits experience of the ESOP team, the design and depth of this solution weaves the power of administrative efficiency with the kind of industry-leading support that you have come to expect from OneAmerica.

Individual Benefits of the Integrated Administration Services Platform offered by OneAmerica.

OneAmerica can accommodate servicing multiple plan types while offering a single experience for plan sponsors and participants. Their technology was built for the specialized needs that ESOP and 401(k) plans require.

Consider the following advantages:

  • Same Relationship Manager for Both Plans

Having one central point of contact with a wealth of experience in both ESOP and 401(k) benefits is an efficiency that is included in the Administration Services Platform approach. Having a single individual available to you that understands the scope and detail of your company’s interaction with employee ESOP benefits and 401(k) plans and can assist you in answers to questions is invaluable.

  • Same Plan Manager for Both Plans

Having one Plan Manager includes some of the same advantages we spoke about regarding having a single Relationship Manager for both ESOP and 401(k) plans. There are efficiencies in communication and narrowing of administrative overhead that allow for more stability and a streamlining of needed contacts. If needed, your Plan Manager can call in high-level consultants for answers to the big questions of distribution, diversification or re-shuffling.

  • Employee-Facing Website

Along with the Integrated Administration Services Platform comes a web portal that allows your employees, once logged in, to see everything from the value of their ESOP holdings to the performance of their 401(k). This kind of instant availability of information gives employees confidence and further cements their feelings of ownership in the company and control of their own futures.

  • Combined Statements

While separate statements were always made available to employees of ESOP companies, the combination of these statements within the Administration Services Platform and the instant availability of account balances within the dedicated web interface simplifies the process. By utilizing your web portal, your employees can access the vital information in both their ESOP and 401(k) plans at the same time.

  • Call Center for Both Plans

Let’s face it. Employees will always have questions about their plans, and your office doesn’t have time to field those calls. OneAmerica has solved this issue in a way that gives employees someone knowledgeable to answer statement questions or talk about eligibility and ESOP payouts so your administrative staff can continue their work uninterrupted.

  • Consulting Team at Your Service

The OneAmerica ESOP consulting team averages more than 20 years of experience per person, and has helped hundreds of ESOP plans to understand their ESOP options and their employee benefits. They understand your business’ unique needs and tailor planning to give you options you can be confident in.

  • Ratings Strength.

OneAmerica has been recognized for overall strength from A.M. Best, and Standard & Poor’s, the industry’s leading credit rating agencies. These agencies provide independent, third-party evaluations of the financial strength and claims paying ability of the insurance companies of OneAmerica. (Read more on the OneAmerica website.)

Why Bundle the Administration for 401(k) and ESOP plans into the Integrated Administration Services Platform offered by OneAmerica?

  • Having multiple vendors instead of a single point of contact can create confusion and block the flow of needed information.
  • Part of the fiduciary responsibility of your company is employee education. Centralizing and streamlining this educational process gives the employees one source of accurate information rather than competing sources.
  • Compliance testing is a requirement. By bundling the plans with the OneAmerica, you can benefit from the inherent efficiencies of integrated testing as the plans exchange information for specific required tests.
  • The Integrated Administration Services Platform allows for a single provider to deal with the processing of distributions in the unfortunate event of an employee death, or separation from the company.

 

Get Streamlined Employee Benefits Administration and Simplify Your Processes with the Administration Services Platform.

Enjoy the simplicity of dealing with just one provider for your ESOP AND 401(k) plans!

OneAmerica gives your employees the ability to access their plan balances and details online or over the phone through their knowledgeable U.S. based call center!

Want to know more? Call Jackie Salmon and the OneAmerica ESOP consulting team now at 317-285-6540 or send an email to jackie.salmon@oneamerica.com to schedule an appointment.

 

*OneAmerica is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica.

Products issued and underwritten by American United Life Insurance Company® (AUL), a OneAmerica company. Administrative and recordkeeping services provided by McCready and Keene, Inc. or OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC, companies of OneAmerica which are not broker/dealers or investment advisors. Provided content is for overview and informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be relied upon as individualized tax, legal, fiduciary, or investment advice. ESOP Marketplace is not an affiliate of any OneAmerica company. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy.

 

More

Glenn Ball, Acclaro Valuation Advisor, Listed on ESOP Marketplace

Glenn Ball, Acclaro Valuation Advisor, Listed on ESOP Marketplace

Glenn Ball is one of the ESOP experts at Acclaro Valuation Advisors we’re proud to feature in a personal listing on our site. Educated in political science and accounting, Mr. Ball has, since 2000, advised privately owned businesses on a range of issues, such as valuation, taxes and business accounting.

Mr. Ball’s expertise as an accountant and valuation advisor stands out, given that he is one of few appraisers who have worked extensively in the ESOP trustee field.

Any business looking for an experienced ESOP valuation advisor with a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach will benefit from Mr. Ball’s advice, and we’re happy to feature him on ESOP Marketplace.

More

Comparing generations of business owners

 

Continued from Fostering Sustainability at ESOPs

We usually relate these generational issues to observations found in the history of Westvaco Corporation.  By the year 2000, Westvaco was the OLDEST and LONGEST LIVING company to provide consistent dividends to their shareholders EVERY YEAR.  It was also led by the Luke family since its inception, and was always a well regarded, well managed company.  Of importance to ESOPs and sustainability, the continuation of the business and the risks the Luke family took to grow and expand are the hallmark of great governance and succession planning.  To help with understanding the generational issues, we are providing what we think illustrates the behaviors by management as each generation unfolds, in family business jargon:

 

A)    Grandparents (1st Generation) did not go to college, they worked their tails off fixing customer problems, risking everything to meet payrolls, vendor demands; they signed personal guarantees for bank financing, and later retired from the business by being paid off, usually over their remaining lives, by the second generation; when they sell the company, the 1st generation is commonly worried about their employees and family members, as well as having the funds for retirement.  The story of Westvaco is as follows:  “Born into a Scottish papermaking family, Westvaco founder William Luke came to theUnited States in 1852. Ten years later he began running a plant for Jessup & Moore Paper Company in Harper’s Ferry,West Virginia. Although employed by Jessup & Moore until 1898, he set up a small plant of his own with his two sons (John and David) in 1889.”  In ESOP terms, the next generation needs to have the same commitment, passion and risk taking ability as the Lukes!

 

B)    Parents (2nd) went to State Universities, had tough jobs during their early years in the business, that is doing “dirty work,” because the grandparents needed cheap but dependable labor and wanting their children to know the value of “hard work;” learned the essential values of working with others and treating people well, be it customer, vendor or employee;  express appreciation for those who helped build the business which created the wealth to allow them to buy second homes, new cars, and a better life style their parents never had;  Family dysfunctions form in this generation, and show up in conflict, accepting mediocrity, incompetence, avoiding the difficult issues, and power plays that create “us versus them” working environments.  Of concern is when these dysfunctions show up at board meetings with siblings as directors, and one of them is the CEO!  Grand parents rarely have siblings telling them how to run the company, now the next generation does!  When the next generation begins their discussions of succession, and they look at maximizing their wealth, they do so because of their belief their next generation will not achieve the values they now have.  For Westvaco, their story was: “In 1904 William Luke relinquished the presidency of the company to his son John Luke, who held the position until 1921. William Luke died in 1912, at which time the company had four mills operating inWest Virginia,Pennsylvania,Virginia, andNew York.  While white paper production volume remained relatively constant, diversification accounted for virtually all growth.”  In ESOPs, strategic planning must be about changing the company during the transition.

 

C)    Grand Children (3rd) were born into, and did not earn wealth, raised with second homes, country clubs and private schools; during their student years, they worked in the office with easy jobs, avoiding hard work in the field; as a result, their expectations included being CEO because of ownership not performance and experience; without developing the successful values of leadership and entrepreneurship their prior generations had to suffer through and learn.  This generation usually views the business as an investment and people as expenses; since their value is based on prior generations success- not their own.  The 3rd Generation also loses sight of the people, customers, or relationships with each other as being the foundation of an effective company.  In many cases, 3rd generation peers and school friends were members of other wealthy families, so did not appreciate rank and file employees as people of value.  When thinking of succession, those non-employed family members, who do not work in the business, regularly look at the stock’s value to determine if they should harvest (sell) to maximize the value.  As a result, they will also focus their attention to dividend payments versus business reinvestment; resulting in concerns their prior generations never considered.  While we describe the 3rd generation as the generation that starts the slide to “shirtsleeves,”  The Luke family was able to avoid these characteristics for over 6 generations.  The Westvaco story for this generation is: “Ascending to president in 1945, David L. Luke, a grandson of the founder, established the company’s modern growth pattern. He immediately began the first of many expansion programs, spending the $17.5 million the company had accumulated during the war. The company also used some of its cash surplus to acquire more land, selling the trees too mature for papermaking to provide additional financing.”

 

The Great Grandchildren (4th and beyond) many times found themselves skipping college, starting their own business, working in fields far from the business such as social or political work, engaging in the fine arts or non-profit communities, sitting in a staff or shop floor job, or like their parents, enjoyed the experiences of unearned wealth.  They went to exclusive schools, drove the best cars, treated people badly, and behaved arrogantly.  These people rarely are criminals, or incompetents; they just have different choices to career development due to their wealth. One Harvard business school study determined that wealthy people develop a lack of care in others (please see http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6324.html).  In some cases, these grandchildren build their own entrepreneurial opportunities and use the family wealth to create new wealth, becoming the next founders. In other words, they sell off their ownership shares to fund their own growth elsewhere.  For Westvaco, the story continues this way: “Hesitant to join his family’s company at first, David L. Luke’s son David L. Luke III became CEO in 1963, after working 11 years for WVPP. He maintained the product development momentum initiated by his father and continued to upgrade efficiency with frequent spending programs. Nearly half of sales in 1967 came from products introduced in the previous ten years.  In 1962 the Luke family controlled 30 percent of the company’s stock; by 1984 it controlled only two percent.  During David Luke III’s 24 years as CEO, Westvaco did more than most papermakers to free itself from the cyclicality of commodity production. His program that accomplished this, “differentiation,” continued under his successors–his brother John A. Luke, who became CEO in 1988, and John A. Luke Jr., whose attainment of the CEO position in 1992 represented the fifth generation of Lukes at the company helm.  In 2002, MeadWestvaco was formed as the result of a merger between The Mead Corporation and Westvaco.”

 

We provided the above paragraph to help illustrate some of the anecdotal behaviors of each generation.  Before we go further, we want to emphasize that these observations are neither consistent nor predictable.  Many companies avoid these descriptions.  Companies like Wal-Mart, Ford, Dow Jones, and Comcast are/were publicly held companies with family dynamics that show various stages in different ways.  For the Ford Motor company, their history of having family members in the CEO position is well documented.  While Henry Ford (1st) formed the business, his son Edsell nearly killed it, only to find Henry II to fill in for his dead father and rebuild the company.

More