ESOPs

RPAS has experience in the design, installation and administration of Employee Stock Ownership Plans. We offer a complete range of ESOP professional services:

• Identification and Analysis of Company Objectives
  
• ESOP Feasibility and Design Studies
  
• Actuarial, Liquidity, and Repurchase Liability Analysis
  
• Plan Document Design and Preparation
  
• Plan Implementation
  
• Employee Communication
  
• Ongoing Plan Administration

Ongoing Administrative Services include:

• Computerized allocation of contributions, trust earnings, forfeitures, and stock appreciation among plan participants' accounts
  
• Individual and consolidated participant summaries for all plan transactions
  
• Participant benefit statements
  
• File maintenance including cost basis of shares for each participant's account
  
• Preparation of top-heavy test and monitoring of all coverage and nondiscrimination compliance tests
• Enrollment and beneficiary forms for new participants
  
• Claims processing for distributions to participants and/or beneficiaries at retirement, death, disability or termination of employment, including preparation of Form 1099-R
  
• Preparation of all Employee Benefits Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements and participant disclosure requirements
  
• Restricted participant reports, including inception-to-date allocations of restricted stock to restricted participants
• Coordination of diversification elections for qualified participants
  
• Released shares calculation for leveraged ESOPs

Because of the complexity of current laws and their transitional rules, it may be necessary to separate stock acquired by the ESOP at different times in different ways. We have highly specialized computer software capable of tracking multiple categories of stock and classes of stock, thereby maximizing operational flexibility of the ESOP.

ESOP Consulting

An ESOP needs to be coordinated with other employee benefit plans and the employer’s business and financial plans with regard to design and ongoing administration. Our team of employee benefit consultants, accountants, and administrators works closely with each client to help assure a comprehensive service that optimizes efficiency in time and expense for each plan.