We are already into the second week of December and 2010 will be here before we know it. Many of you are preparing for the end of the year and the start of a new year by going through a planning process:

"Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal.

A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next.

One more reason why you need planning is again the 80/20 Rule. It is well established that for unstructured activities 80 percent of the effort give less than 20 percent of the valuable outcome. You either spend much time on deciding what to do next, or you are taking many unnecessary, unfocused, and inefficient steps.

Planning is also crucial for meeting your needs during each action step with your time, money, or other resources. With careful planning you often can see if at some point you are likely to face a problem. It is much easier to adjust your plan to avoid or smoothen a coming crisis, rather than to deal with the crisis when it comes unexpected."

In addition to corporate strategic planning, tax planning, budgeting, and all of your other year end responsibilities, don't forget the importance of ESOP planning. ESOP planning includes planning for both the current year ESOP administration process and the various events that take place over the life of an ESOP. Many companies schedule planning meetings in advance and on a regular basis. Meeting at least once per year is a best practice, and depending on where you are at in the planning process, you may need to meet more often. While there is no specific time that you have to conduct your meeting(s), most companies schedule them prior to the end of the plan year, at the start of the plan year, or after the annual allocation has been completed. You should consider involving other members of the ESOP team, such as your ESOP third party administrator or recordkeeper, ESOP consultant, and ESOP counsel, in your discussions. They will be able to contribute their experience and expertise to the process as well as gain a better understanding of the timing of the allocation process and the issues that the ESOP team is facing.

Over the next few weeks we will be covering the following ESOP planning topics:

• ESOP Planning 2009: Allocation Timeline
• ESOP Planning 2009: Plan Documents and Disclosures
• ESOP Planning 2009: Plan Expenses
• ESOP Planning 2009: Distributions (1 of 4)
• ESOP Planning 2009: Distributions (2 of 4)
• ESOP Planning 2009: Distributions (3 of 4)
• ESOP Planning 2009: Distributions (4 of 4)
• ESOP Planning 2009: Contributions
• ESOP Planning 2009: Dividends and S Corporation Distributions of Earnings
• ESOP Planning 2009: Appraisal of Employer Securities
• ESOP Planning 2009: IRS Form 5500 and Plan Audit
• ESOP Planning 2009: Corporate Governance
• ESOP Planning 2009: Employee Communications and Culture
• ESOP Planning 2009: Fiduciary Responsibilities

The ESOP Planning process includes planning for both the current year ESOP administration process as well as the various events that take place over the life of an ESOP. This article is one in a series of ESOP Planning 2009 articles authored by Aaron Juckett. Aaron Juckett is an ESOP consultant and the founder of ESOP Insourcing LLC, an ESOP administration and consulting firm dedicated to providing ESOP companies with a first-class ESOP experience throughout the entire ESOP lifecycle (feasibility and implementation, ongoing administration and compliance, employee communications, distribution planning, and repurchase obligation forecasting). If you need assistance with the ESOP Planning process, please call Aaron at 800-837-3112 or email him at ajuckett@esopinsourcing.com.