RECORDED WEBINAR:

ESOPs: A Different Way of Selling to a 3rd Party

Originally Recorded on Tuesday, May 2, 2023
100 Minutes

Presented by:

Frank Caputo, CEPA, Partner, WealthPoint

John Chionchio, CEPA, Partner, WealthPoint

Michael Kenneth , Director of Solutions, WealthPoint

Presentation Description

As more business-owners head toward retirement, one often misunderstood succession strategy that should be considered is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). ESOPs offer significant advantages to privately-held businesses, ranging from tax mitigation to creating a substantial economic benefit for the employees. Despite its benefits, they are often thought of as a less attractive option than a 3rd party sale. ESOPs are a viable solution for all parties (owners, employees and the operating business) when structured properly and should be considered for all business-owners who are looking to monetize part or all of their company and bolster company longevity.

Join John Chionchio, Frank Caputo and Michael Kenneth of WealthPoint for this 100-miunte presentation as they discuss how Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) are an under-utilized strategy as an alternative to a 3rd party sale. Michael Kenneth, Director of Solutions, will discuss which companies make the best ESOP candidates and how to implement on an ESOP. WealthPoint Partners John Chionchio and Frank Caputo will provide an overview of the ESOP process and bring real-world client experiences as examples of successful implementations.

Additionally, there will be significant time allotted for a Q&A panel discussion with the WealthPoint Team to delve deeper into your specific questions.   

Learning Objectives

• Understand how Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) work 
  
• Identify crucial tax benefits for an ESOP and how they can help to repay company debt
  
• Discuss the reasons for an ESOP vs. an alternative exit strategy
  
• Identify the impact on the company and its employees
  
• Discuss the unique impact ESOPs can have on companies with self-funded health plans

Speakers

Frank Caputo, CEPA 

Partner, WealthPoint

Frank Caputo is a former business owner with over 25 years’ experience in business ownership, business development, strategic planning, operations, and tactical execution within multiple industries. He has been through each phase of the business life cycle, from growth and succession to the successful sale of multiple business operating companies. Frank has been active in the Phoenix market for over 14 years as a business owner and consultant, working with middle market businesses. His expertise lies in value creation tactics to improve sales and generate more business opportunities. 

As a partner at WealthPoint, Frank provides consultation on family business, management succession planning, and owner exit strategies. Frank joined WealthPoint at the beginning of 2018 after successfully selling a multi-territory, multi-unit franchise business to a strategic buyer in 2016. In his career, Frank has built several companies that have gone through successful succession transitions. As a partner in the firm, Frank works primarily with business owners and their families who have a large percentage of their net worth in the value of their businesses. His sole purpose is to create significantly better outcomes for Clients regarding their most valued asset, their privately held businesses!

John Chionchio, CEPA

Partner, WealthPoint

From the time he was 11 years old running paper routes in his small rural Wisconsin town, John has been a serial entrepreneur. Running his own business every summer off from college and starting his first electronics company at 24, he built and eventually sold his companies to Rockwell Avionics & Communication and to Westinghouse. Then came a strategic consulting practice helping business owners intentionally build enterprise value. After getting licensed for securities and risk products, before joining WealthPoint, John built a financial services business serving business owners, helping them to ensure the value tied up in their businesses was successfully returned to their balance sheet to ensure cash flow for retirement, legacy, and philanthropy goals.

After an introduction to WealthPoint, John sold his practice and joined the firm. As a partner at WealthPoint, John’s passion and purpose is to help business owners achieve the outcomes with and for their businesses that they have hoped for, worked for and dreamed about. Diving into complex succession and exit scenarios, fraught with uncertainty, where there are no cookie solutions is fuel for the fire that burns in John. John graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 with a BS degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering and has a CEPA certification from the Exit Planning Institute.

Michael Kenneth 

Director of Solutions, WealthPoint

Michael Kenneth is the Director of Solutions for WealthPoint located in Phoenix, Arizona. Since joining WealthPoint in 2012, Michael has spent time working with 150+ privately held businesses on developing their succession plan. His role is to manage all the technical aspects of any of the planning strategies that are recommended to clients or advisors. This includes the case design, research, analysis preparation and solution architecture for succession and exit strategies for its business advisory clients. Additionally, he manages the proprietary financial modeling tool that WealthPoint created to assist its clients to numerically stress-test various planning strategies. Furthermore, he has extensive experience dealing with financial projections and valuation for operating businesses, Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and various tax-efficient succession planning strategies. Michael also serves on the board of a few successful companies in the Phoenix area. 

Michael is a graduate of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona with a BS in Finance and Economics and a MS in Accounting. He obtained his CPA designation and is in process of pursuing his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. 

Michael does CrossFit several times a week and lives in Mesa, Arizona with his wife, Jeneé, his daughter, Kenley and his son, Kashton.

Continuing Education:

• 2 hours CE for JBEA
• 2 hours CE for ASPPA
• 2 hours CPE for NIPA
• 2 hours CE for CEBS
• 1.5 hours of MCLE for California 

A Special Thank You to Our Sponsor

Sincerely,

Bridget Davidson 
Webinar Coordinator | Western Pension & Benefits Council 
(503) 866-6384 Mobile
PO Box 2023 | Gresham, OR 97030 
webinars@westernpension.org  |  www.westernpension.org

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