Topics to be covered:

• Why do so many owners in the construction and professional services industries (architects, engineers, etc.) gravitate towards employee ownership (ESOP’s) as their succession plan?  Includes case studies and examples in Texas.
• What goes into an ESOP formation/succession engagement.  Outcomes, Pros/Cons, Considerations, Financing, Structures, Options, etc.
• What are the key tax advantages given to ESOP’s by Congress for both the owners and the company.  Ability to eliminate/defer cap gains on the sale (1042); becoming a tax-free entity (S Corp owned by a Qualified Retirement Plan); personal tax deductions for owners pre-formation; and estate planning strategies.
• How do employee-owned companies perform versus privately held companies.
• How do employees purchase a company without taking any risk or using any of their own money.  Financing, proceeds to owners, lending, seller note structure, etc.
• How does proper plan design ensure the owner’s meet their goals; management incentives are included; and employee retirements are funded.

Doug Janowski with Lazear Capital

Doug is a Managing Director with Lazear Capital Partners in our Dallas office focusing primarily on Texas and the surrounding southern United States. He helps business owners and their advisors understand business succession options and determine if selling the company to an ESOP is the right solution.

Before joining Lazear Capital, Doug worked as the Director for Business Development for CBIZ Valuation Group, a business unit of CBIZ, providing business valuation and tangible asset appraisal consulting services.  Before CBIZ, he spent fifteen years at a global, multi-billion dollar technology and consulting organization supporting the largest accounting and advisory firms in the southern United States.  Doug began his career as an investment advisor for a boutique consulting firm managing over two billion dollars in defined benefit plan investments, as well as several years as a financial analyst for Andersen Consulting, now Accenture.

Doug received both a B.B.A. with honors in Finance and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.