In this episode, we share "Best Practices to Help Trustees Sleep at Night" presented at The ESOP Association PA/DE Chapter & NY/NJ Chapter Multi-State 2018 Conference in Hershey, PA on September 13th, 2018.

We start with a brief introduction and some background from presenter Gregory Kniesel, Managing Director at Value Management Inc. VMI is a financial consulting firm specializing in valuing businesses, corporate securities, and professional practices.

At the presentation, Greg is joined by:

- Drake Nicholas, partner at Barley Snyder. Drake manages the firm’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) practice.

- Rich Heeter, Managing Director at Capital Trustees. (You can learn more about Rich in The ESOP Podcast Episode 42: About Capital Trustees)

We then share the audio from the interdisciplinary panel. The panel addressed considerations and issues faced by the trustee, including industry and regulatory guidance and a discussion of how ESOP company financial projections are developed and used. The session also includes a discussion of the fiduciary duties.

This week on The ESOP Mini-cast we share news from a frequent guest of the podcast, Rob Hilton. He is pleased to announce that he is joining South Park Advisors, an independent business valuation firm with offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and Rochester, New York. He is joining as Managing Director and co-owner of the firm, alongside partner Robert Snowden. His substantial expertise in the implementation and administration of ESOPs will extend the firm’s service capabilities to trustees and business owners in both the Northeastern and Southeastern states.

Rob is an accredited senior appraiser (ASA) of the American Society of Appraisers and a member of the National Center of Employee Ownership (NCEO). He currently serves as Executive Vice President of the New York/New Jersey Chapter of The ESOP Association.

To hear more from Rob Hilton and his perspective on valuation, tune in to The ESOP Podcast Episodes 29, 23, and 21.

We talk with Larry Filipski, CFO of the 100% ESOP Once Again Nut Butter and President of The ESOP Association's NY/NJ State Chapter. We speak with him directly from the conference floor at The ESOP Association's excellent PA/DE & NY/NJ Chapters Multi-State Conference, held 11 – 13 September, 2018, right in Capital Trustee's own backyard at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA; on the floor we are also joined by Mike Shuey from Restek, Inc., President of PA/DE State Chapter and get to hear about the value of the state conferences.

This week we are presenting directly from The ESOP Association's excellent PA/DE & NY/NJ Chapters Multi-State Conference held 11 – 13 September, 2018, right in Capital Trustee's own backyard at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA.

First we chat about the success of the conference with Larry Filipski, CFO of the 100% ESOP Once Again Nut Butter and President of The ESOP Association's NY/NJ State Chapter. Then we talk about the benefits of the state conferences with Mike Shuey of Restek Inc. and President of The ESOP Association's PA/DE State Chapter. Stay tuned for future in-depth episodes featuring conference participants.

This week Bret Keisling of Capital Trustees speaks with Janel Leymeister, Partner and Retirement Plan Consultant at Conrad Siegel. After a brief introduction of her background and her firm's founder Connie Siegel, she discusses the development of Conrad Siegel's investment advisory services and the specifics of their ESOP practice.

(Note at 12:18: Clearly, we need to get an underwater microphones for a future episode where we take a "deep dive' into ESOP SCUBA!)

As our regular listeners know, at the end of every recent episode of The ESOP Podcast, we invite you to submit topics for discussion. In this episode, Bret Keisling, Rich Heeter, and Brian Keisling of Capital Trustees go through that 'grab bag' and answer some of your ESOP questions.

The questions we cover in this episode:

* Are there rules for the minimum amount of information that management has to share with employee owners?

* What is the tangible difference is for employee owners at a 100 percent employee owned company versus, say, a 30 percent employee owned company ? And, as a follow-on, which ownership scenario is more common?

* How long can a company that just became employee owned expect to wait before seeing the results of becoming an ESOP?

* What is diversification and why is it used?

* A hypothetical question: My company wants to make a $3,000,000 capital expenditure that we think will result in a lot of new business. But if we take on debt to finance the plans, the share price will decrease. Can management make certain decisions even though they know it will result in a decreased value?

* I've heard at conferences that ESOPs can't own real estate. Is this true? And if so, why would there be such a rule?

What are prohibited transactions in relation to ESOPs?

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. Please, keep them coming. We plan to do another Q&A session in the future.

The full transcript of this episode is available on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/40-your-esop-questions-answered

In this ESOP Mini-cast, we highlight the importance of good record keeping.

To take a deeper dive into this topic, tune into "The ESOP Podcast Episode 13 – Scott Stitt, ERISA Attorney at Tucker Ellis, LLP, on representing ESOPs."

Employee Ownership Month is in October, and so it is time to start planning! Of course we need to support our company's ownership culture all year long, but Employee Ownership Month - #EOMESOP18 - is the perfect time for heightened awareness of your ESOP, as well as chance to spread to word to your community and your local officials. In this episode we discuss some of the creative ways to celebrate employee ownership month, with some great examples from ESOP companies we know.

The ESOP Press Kit referenced in this podcast is available to Employee Ownership Association members here: https://www.esopassociation.org/advocacy/employee-ownership-month.

On this week's "#ESOP Mini-cast", we share quick tips and highlights from ESOP advocate Rob Zicaro on the importance of creating a strong employee-ownership culture.

To take a deeper dive into this topic, tune into "The ESOP Podcast Episode 22 – Rob Zicaro on Employee Ownership."

Capital Trustees’ Co-Managing Director Bret Keisling and Client Relations Associate Brian Keisling take a deep dive into what happens after a company engages an external trustee. Topics include:

* The due diligence document request process, and some background on why we request the documents that we do;

* What we do with those due diligence documents after being engaged;

* The formal valuation advisor engagement process and agreement;

* What happens on one of our personal favorite parts of the process - a site visit;

* How the external trustee, per their responsibility under law, sets the share price for a company;

* The preparation of the draft and final annual update report;

* The changes to signatories on the trust accounts when shifting from an internal to external trustees; and

* What external trustees do and how they are engaged on an annual basis.