Corey Rosen's commentary on LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Assoc. Inc., No. 06-856 (Feb. 20, 2008) can be found at Implications of the LaRue Decision for ESOPs. He explains the ruling and the history of the case. He also asks what this means for ESOPs:

Litecontrol (Hanson, MA)

We have devoted a few posts to LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Assoc. Inc., No. 06-856 (Feb. 20, 2008), including a look at LaRue from an ESOP Perspective. We have also discussed immediate concerns and recommendations and LaRue's Impact on Fiduciaries and Sponsors. Here are links to two additional articles that discuss some action items:

Is the 60 days for IRA rollovers calculated from the date of the check or the post mark of the check received by the owner? discusses the 60-day rollover period. Guidance for the 60-day rollover period can be found in IRC Section 402(c)(3) - Taxability of beneficiary of employees' trust - Rules applicable to rollovers from exempt trusts - Transfer must be made within 60 days of receipt and guidance defining a rollover contribution can be found in IRC Section 408(d)(3) -Individual retirement accounts - Tax treatment of distributions - Rollover contribution. The article states that the 60-day period begins the day after the IRA has receives the assets and that the IRA owner is responsible for determining the date. The article also discusses the 60-day waiver rules provided under IRS Revenue Procedure 2003-16.

America Saves published Americans Report Their Savings Habits and Progress, a press release announcing the results of a survey commissioned by America Saves and the American Savings Education Council (ASEC). The survey found that "only 53 percent say that they save at least 5% of their income, while only 57 percent of those not retired say they are saving enough for a retirement with a "desirable standard of living." The press release highlighted the following:

ESOPs Impacted by Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case discusses LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Assoc. Inc., No. 06-856 (Feb. 20, 2008) from an ESOP perspective. Most claims related to the company stock would apply to the plan as a whole and are not affected by this ruling. This post discusses three examples where a claim only affects one participant or a subset of participants:

I continue to add related links to the LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Assoc. Inc., No. 06-856 (Feb. 20, 2008) post. One of the related links, Supreme Court Expands Remedies Available for ERISA Fiduciary Breach Claims, discusses the impact on fiduciaries and sponsors:

The February 14, 2008 Employee Ownership Update is online and discusses the following:

The Statistical Profile of Employee Ownership was updated in February 2008. Here are some of the latest ESOP statistics:

In the shadow of LaRue, Department of Labor issues a directive on fiduciary responsibility for collection of delinquent contributions mentions LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Assoc. Inc., No. 06-856 (Feb. 20, 2008) and discusses Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2008-01 – Fiduciary Responsibility for Collection of Delinquent Contributions:

The February 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal published a series of ESOP-related articles in its Small Business section (page B6). Here are links to my posts discussing each of the articles:

In December we wrote about how the Supreme Court started hearing arguments in the LaRue Case. The Supreme Court finally issued their ruling in LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Assoc. Inc., No. 06-856 (Feb. 20, 2008) (PDF file).

U.S. Labor Department announced a new online resource to help Americans chart their retirement finances and prepare for retirement:

Continuing my review of the series of ESOP articles in the Wall Street Journal, Overdosing on Your Company's Stock is a post on the Wall Street Journal's Independent Street Blog that discusses the problem of being too concentrated in employer stock. The post follows up an article discussing how an ESOP company diversified a portion of its ESOP Assets.

Web Industries (Hartford, CT)

Innovance (Albert Lea, MN)

We recently discussed teaching business literacy in In the News: Using Analogies to Teach Business Literacy. We also discussed how 17 of the 18 Winning Workplaces' fourth annual Best Bosses practice open-book management and are teaching employees how to read and understand financial documents. The latest Employee Ownership Blog post asks
Does Your Company Share Financial Information with Employee Owners?:

Business Briefs announces the Minnesota Employee Ownership Fund:

Tech Image (Buffalo Grove, IL) / SmithBucklin Corp. (Chicago, IL)

The latest ESOP Law Blog post, Treasury Proposes New ESOP Regulations And Invites Public Comment, discusses proposed Treasury Regulation - REG–136701–07 - Diversification Requirements for Certain Defined Contribution Plans.

The series of ESOP articles in the Wall Street Journal includes three charts illustrating the trends in employee stock ownership:

PRIZIM Inc. (Olde Towne Gaithersburg, MD)

Brookfield Engineering Laboratories Inc. (Middleboro, MA)

Van Meter Industrial, Inc. (Cedar Rapids, IA)

One of the remedies for failing the coverage requirements under IRC Section 410(b) – Minimum coverage requirements or the nondiscrimination requirements under IRC Section 401(a)(4) is to adopt a corrective amendment. The Pension Protection Act Blog discusses how an amendment to increase the contributions or benefits to non-vested terminated employees is not permitted in Making a Bad Situation Worse: An -11g Corrective Amendment Allocating to a Non-Vested Terminated Employee:

Employee Ownership Center Receives “New Visions” Grant announced that the New Visions Foundation of Buffalo Grove, IL, has awarded a $7,500 grant for general operating support to the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC):

We previously discussed ownership culture, employee participation programs, and employee communications committees in ESOP Communications Committee, Ownership Culture. The latest Employee Ownership Blog post, Do You Manage Your Culture?, asks whether an ownership culture should be managed:

Last week we discussed required minimum distributions (RMDs) in ESOP Planning: Distributions (3 of 4). I recently came across a Q&A that expands on some of the issues discussed. What value should be used to determine the number of shares to distribute? The value of the distribution is calculated using the fair market value of the stock as of the date of the distribution, and the value of the distribution must be at least equal to the amount required to be distributed to satisfy the RMD requirements:

Distribution planning is one of the most important components of the planning process. Even if you had a detailed plan in place when you established your plan, chances are that things have changed. You should perform a distribution analysis annually. Here are some things to consider:

Distribution planning is one of the most important components of the planning process. Even if you had a detailed plan in place when you established your plan, chances are that things have changed. You should perform a distribution analysis annually. Here are some things to consider:

Distribution planning is one of the most important components of the planning process. Even if you had a detailed plan in place when you established your plan, chances are that things have changed. You should perform a distribution analysis annually. Here are some things to consider:

We recently discussed the district court summary judgment (General Mills vs. United States) that allowed a company to use deductible redemptive dividends to fund ESOP distributions. Federal Court Permits Dividend Deduction for Stock Redeemed from ESOP provides a detailed look at the ruling and the recent history of using dividends to fund ESOP distributions.

Distribution planning is one of the most important components of the planning process. Even if you had a detailed plan in place when you established your plan, chances are that things have changed. You should perform a distribution analysis annually. Here are some things to consider: