Husband and wife owners of an $500M engineering services firm were exploring a combination of executive compensation and owner succession strategies. We led a multi-advisor team spanning legal, leadership, tax, and estate planning services.

• We formulated a tax-free equity design to segregate divisions that are subject to, and excluded from, value sharing with executives and employees.
• We evaluated multi-generation succession options spanning estate structure, liquidity, control, legacy, and growth.
• We helped the family and the executives select a tax- advantaged 100% ESOP as a long-term strategy for selected divisions of the company.

A $60M government contractor with a dozen owners was in search of a refreshed owners’ equity model spanning founders, recent owners and next-gen leaders. We centered on a high-performance model of equity grants and synthetic equity.

• For owners, we crafted a restricted stock economic model for “unicorns” across recruiting, retention and reward.
• For next gen leaders, we crafted a synthetic equity plan to increase visibility of promotion track and greatly reduce the friction of initial buy-in.
• For all leaders, we crafted a class-based qualified profit-sharing plan permitting for discrimination in favor of high performers.

The BOLD Value Service Line is Dedicated to the Specific Needs of Middle Market Business Owners. Mark Bronfman* and his BOLD Value team members are registered Representative of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. Securities offered through Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., a broker/dealer. Member SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Sagemark Consulting, a division of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., a registered investment advisor. Insurance offered through Lincoln affiliates and other fine companies. The BOLD Value trademark is personally owned by Mark Bronfman. This article is intended for privately held companies and is not intended to address taxation or policy related to publicly held companies. Bold Value is a marketing name for registered representatives of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp.

* Licensed, not practicing.

CRN-4170766-011322