Prioritizing client education to empower decision makers throughout their transaction

Companies that are required to prepare financial statements for external reporting face complex and serious issues. Failing to timely file financial statements or comply with the reporting requirements could lead to fines, lawsuits, or other damaging consequences. Moreover, with fair value accounting (also known as the mark-to-market accounting practice) becoming more prevalent today, financial executives responsible for filing the financial statements have a more demanding role than ever before. While fair value accounting might provide a more accurate asset and liability valuation on an ongoing basis to users of the financial statements, financial executives are not necessarily prepared to accurately determine fair value of all assets and liabilities.

Determining when and how to exit your business is one of the most important and personal decisions you will make throughout your career. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a particularly attractive vehicle, given the flexibility it provides. An ESOP offers a tailored approach to selling your business. Selling to an ESOP offers meaningful liquidity while providing significant benefits to the company’s employees and delivering a powerful corporate finance tool that provides tremendous tax savings to both the owners and the company.

There are thousands of firms offering investment banking services in the United States. So how do you choose the right one or BEST one for you? Below, we describe the different categories of investment banking firms and provide a list of widely recognized firms that offer quality services. There are too many firms to list all of them. We used third-party research and have provided website links to the lists. However, these are not comprehensive lists of quality investment banking firms, so the absence of a firm name does not imply that the firm lacks competence.

Most entrepreneurs spend so much time planning, building and managing their companies that they don’t actively consider and plan for their ultimate exit. Not surprisingly, owners want to sell when the market is hottest, and they are ready to retire. Yet life and market cycles rarely coincide. The risk is that once your company or its industry peaks, or market trends change which threatens growth, a seller may have missed the most opportune time to sell. Don’t wait until the economy or your niche evolves unfavorably, or an unplanned personal issue creates a company crisis.

On their face Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) appear to be a vehicle for employee ownership and not something that invites Private Equity Group (PEG) investment due to differing ownership structures. On the contrary, ESOPs and PEGs can co-exist in a mutually beneficial relationship. In many cases, PEGs view ESOP companies as having the exact characteristics they look for in target investments.