Journey to an ESOP & Beyond

On this episode I interview Hobie Frady  - Government Contractor expert and practice leader Warren Averett (CPA firm for government contractors).  Hobie and I delve into how ESOPs really are a very popular solution for government contractors both on a partial sale and a 100 percent sale.  In 2021 there was new legislation passed for government contractors that allows a 100 percent ESOP to have preferential treatment for existing contracts.  Hobie does a great job of explaining the lay of the land in Huntsville and the very popular ESOP option for exit, succession and growth strategies.

This episode will conclude our discussion on business valuation reviewing the discounted cash flow model, required working capital and transaction value to determine the best estimate for your ESOP valuation.  The 4 part series was intended to go into the details that will help you identify questions to ask your advisor.

This episode features experienced ESOP lender Douglas Dell with KeyBank out of Colorado.  Doug offers insight into this extremely important step in the ESOP process to help answer the question: "How am I going to get my money out of this ESOP deal?"

This is part 3 of a multi-part series on business valuation modeling as it relates to ESOPs.  This episode provides a good overview of the first step in creating the discounted cash flow model of valuation beginning with forecasting and working through a process of completing the forecast.

This episode is dedicated to better understanding insurance for ESOPs.  Jeff Gelburd with Murray Insurance is a pioneer in getting insurance policies to mitigate fiduciary risk set up way back when things were just getting started in ESOPs.  He explains the bundling of Fiduciary, DNO and Employee Liability as well as the trends for insurance relative to transaction trustees for ESOPs.

This is part 2 of a multi part series in business valuations as they relate to ESOPs.  This episode covers understanding cash flow and capitalization rate composition and structure and illustrates how very little is relying on the valuation analysts subjective judgement of the financial information and risk data on the subject company.

This episode is located here and on you tube...we cover how to maximize the benefit of the ESOP to your company - a critical aspect of leveraging an ESOP through building a strong ownership thinking culture to get your people to understand how all of the pieces of the puzzle work!   Jim's group has a unique and specific areas of expertise that they focus on exclusively with ESOP companies!

This episode explores the science of business valuation for ESOPs to answer the question relative to is my ESOP valuation for planning purposes accurate and what questions should I be asking my advisors in the planning steps in your journey to an esop.  This is part 1 that goes through the importance of business valuation and distinctly points out definitionally valuation concepts that are important to understand so that we can then build on the details for part 2 coming soon!

This is the first ever ESOP Guy interview internationally from as far away as we can get from the U.S. - "way down under mate" in Australia with Succession Plus advisor Craig West, CPA - who has built his practice off of research from his own doctoral study in ESOPs.  There are some fascinating similarities between ESOPs in the U.S. and Australia as well as some very interesting differences.

In this episode - we cover the very important topic of management transition in your succession plan as it relates to your journey to an esop.  One of the most difficult and significant transitions is going to be the key position of CEO.  We cover why this is so important and some suggestions as to how to go about it.