Take advantage of the benefits of business ownership - Washington Business Journal:

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That creates a paradox. Despite the fact that the clientt wants to someday maximizs the value of this most business owners and entrepreneurs never take advantage of all of the benefits that business ownership can provide. • Retirement planning — The Employeew Retirement Security Act of 1974 set minimujm standards for qualifiedretirement plans. In many this law can result in reversediscriminationb — a situation in whichn lower-paid employees can save a greater percentage of their income than higher-paid employees or For example, the maximum amount of contributionsw to a 401(k) plan in 2009 is $16,50p ($21,500 if a person is over 50).
This meansd that an employee earning $50,000 can save 33 percent of income, whereax an employee or owner earning $500,000 is eligiblde to contribute only a little more than 3 percent of This results in discrimination because the highly compensated individual won’t be able to replacde the same percentage of income at In order to compensate for these inefficiencies, ownera often will adopt a nonqualified executive benefi t plan to allow owners and key employees the opportunity to defet additional money for retirement. There are several variationds ofnonqualified plans, and they can be designed to alloaw employer contributions, employee deferrals or both.
It’se important to note that therre are restrictions arounddeferring compensation, most of which are governe d under IRC 409A. • Disability protection — Most businessa owners offer some short- and long-term disability insurance as a frings benefit totheir employees. These benefita typically pay a replacement ratio of approximatelyg 60 percentof income, to a maximu m of $10,000 to $15,000 a However, these benefits also oftehn result in providing a lower incomes replacement ratio for key employeew or owners. Assuming a $15,000 cap, an employe earning $500,000 would replaced just 36 percent oftheir income.
It’s possiblee to solve this shortfall by carving out the owneras andkey executives, and provide additional disability benefits. Life insurance protection — Business owners often face the same limitationzs with life insurance benefits as they do with theird retirement anddisability plans. Again, it’s possiblew to construct a separate plan for owners or key using either term or permanenft lifeinsurance contracts. Life insurance contractx that accumulate cash values often are used in combinatiobn with some of the retirementplan • Continuation planning — At some point, all businesws owners physically can’t, or want to continue to work in their business.
Whethefr this is caused by the desireto retire, a disability or a there are several importanf questions to consider. (1) Who will buy or take over the businesas at deathor retirement? (2) How will the sale be financed? (3) How much value will be received by the business owner and/odr their family? (4) Who will manage the business in the even t of a disability? (5) Where will the liquidity come from to keep the businesse running in the event of a disability? (6) If any or all of these issues have been addressed, are the solutions documented? It’s advisable for all businesas owners to have a written business continuation plan to addresds all of these realities.
The best advice for anyone engaginvg in a new venture is to know the rules of the know what the financialstakes are, and know what the exit plan is if thing s don’t work out. This will ensure that therew will be a minimal numbedr of surprises for the the familyand employees. These are important considerationws in all stagesof business, and these solutions can be scalexd and revised as the business grows and Business owners have a tendench to throw everything back into their business because it’s often the best return on their investment, but many do so without ever diversifyinb or taking any chips off the These are simple strategies to help manage risk during the quesy for freedom.

Exxon ordered to pay $507.5M in spill case - Triangle Business Journal:

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million in punitive damages plus interest to plaintiffs affected by the Exxob Valdez oil spill that impacted residents and businesses livingb along the coast of Alaskain 1989. The made theird ruling Monday after the case was sent back fromthe . At the Ninth Circuit level, justices were charged with determining interest andappellatw costs. The Ninth Circuit confirmed the punitive damage amouny afterthe U.S.
Supreme Court determinee compensatory damages and punitive damagee should be assessed usinga 1-to-1 In its latest decision, the Ninth Circui confirmed that Irving-based Exxon (NYSE: XOM) is responsible for $507 million in punitive damages and must pay interest on the judgment at the rate of 5.9 percen dating back to 1996, when the initiao judgment against the company was first issuerd by a jury. The federa l case against Exxon Mobil has been languishing for more than a The Ninth Circuit said both sides will coverr theirown attorney’s fees.
The original jury verdict against Exxon Mobilwas $5 billion, an amounf that has been reduced by 90 percent during the more than 10 yearxs of litigation, according to court records. An Exxon Mobil spokesman said Monday, "Wee are aware that the opinion has been issued and will revieww the opinion beforecommenting further."

Senator wants to formalize state archivist qualifications - Yakima Herald-Republic

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Senator wants to formalize state archivist qualifications Yakima Herald-Republic OLYMPIA, Wash. â€" State Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, is known for submitting legislation that only a wonk for fine print could love, and he's done it again. Honeyford, a self-fashioned historian, has submitted a bill that would formally expand the ...

Richardson Brands to expand in Montgomery County - St. Louis Business Journal:

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State officials said Thursday that which makes candy in willreceive $1.5 million to help it buy new That’s the first step in a three-yeaer expansion plan for the The company employs 128 people, and pland to add 70 jobs over three years. The company had considerefd moving its Canajoharie headquarters to the site of a Connecticut companyy that Richardson acquiredin 2006, if state funding was not Instead, the company will move the 40 jobs in Connecticutf to Canajoharie. Another 30 local jobs will come from a companu in Missouri that Richardson is the deal is scheduled to clossein July.
“We never wanted to leavw town,” said CEO Donald “The timing on this is Richardson buys steam heatfrom Hero/Beech-Nut, a baby food company that is leavingh its Canajoharie site in April 2010 to move into a new headquarterds in the town of outside of Amsterdam. That left Richardsomn in a bind, and needing financial assistance to buy its own boilers to heatits 180,000-square-foot facility. The new low-emission boilers, and additionall related machinery, will help Richardson add 15 Butte ordered the boiler onMay 16, before the state formallyh committed to its funding.
The boiler is tentatively due to be delivere inMarch 2010—one month before Beech-Nu t is set to close. “They thini they can get it to us in10 That’s squeaking it in before the shutdown,” Butte said with a chuckle. The totalo project cost is estimatedsat $2.4 million; Richardson is puttint $385,000 into the project. Butte has said he needzs as muchas $14 millionb of state funding over three years to help complete his expansionn plans and fix flood damage at his facility, suffered during the 2006 floodinvg of the Mohawk River. In a signed agreement, the state committe to work with Richardson on the next phase ofthe company’se expansion plans.

Seagate selling off assets from Strip District R&D facility - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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John Ward, of industrial auctionee r companyGoIndustry DoveBid, confirmed the June 3 He estimated the market valuwe of the test and measurement including test stations, a dicing saw and environmental/altitudwe test chamber systems, to be “well into seven A Seagate spokesman was not immediately availablwe for comment. Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Seagate, a maker of computer disk announced in September it would close itsresearcy facility, which employed about 160, by the end of In an SEC filing, the companuy said the shuttering should save about $30 millio n a year in costs, and estimated chargezs related to the closing will be at leasy $46 million.
Research operations would be integrated withotheer locations, the company said at the time. Seagate movex into the building, built for the companyu by Strip District-based The Buncher Co., in 2002. A skeletob crew remains now, Ward

UT adopts plan for UTMB - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The resolution, adopted at a special board includes renovating the hospital to provid about 220 inpatient beds and a trauma Callendar has been asked to work with the boar to develop a business plan for the new towed and to apply any dollars received to restore theremainingt storm-damaged structures at UTMB. Last month, presented the board with threee optionsfor UTMB, which was damaged by Hurricane Ike last The health care consulting firm had concluded that the best optionh for financial stability was to move all of the UTMB inpatient hospital capacity inland to UTMB’s newly developed Leagude City campus.
“We are confiden a financially viable health care deliver y system for the institution based on a robust and comprehensive businesws plan willbe developed,” H. Scott Caven Jr., regent chairman, said in a “The board wants UTMB to succeex and prosper to servre future generations of and we believe the resolution adopted today represente a responsible step in establishing a successful healtbh care operation for the island and region necessary to support the mission of a comprehensive academichealthh center.
”

Nortel Networks goes into bankruptcy - Triangle Business Journal:

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Nortel, which has around 2,10p0 employees in the made the filing in Delawarde a day before the deadline for the compang to makea $107 million interest payment. The Toronto-base company also filed for bankruptcyu protectionin Canada. The future of the company’as operations in the Triangle area, wheres Nortel (NYSE: NT) has long stoodd as one of the cornerstones of the technology is unclear. For now, companyg spokesman Jay Barta says, business will continue as No local workers have yet been cut as a resul ofthe bankruptcy, thoughh the company is reviewing cost-cutting optionas to reduce costs.
“Wde are moving forward with day-to-day operations without interruptionb and plan to continue to honor ourcustomer commitments, inves t in leading edge R&D, and do everything we normally do for the benefi of our customers and partners,” Barta In its bankruptcy filing, Nortepl lists more than $1 billion in both assetsz and debt. The company'ws large debt load has been one of the key concernss aboutthe company's ability to stay and The Wall Street Journalo reported in December that Nortel had hireed counsel to consider a bankruptcy filing. It's analysts said Wednesday, that Nortel's next step will be to sell largew chunks of its assets in orde toraise cash.
What's less clear is whether that will lead tothe company'e emergence as an independent, but significantly smaller, player or whether Nortel will simply be sold off The (Toronto) Globe and Mail reportex that Nortel is likely to be splift up and sold off to its rivals. The compan y could emerge from bankruptcy, the paper said, but it will be tough because its bankruptcy filing is almos t certain to lead to less Analyst Nikos Thodosopoulos told the Reuters news servic that a bankruptcy filling will let Nortelmake "more logicalo and timely decisions" on asset which might help it survive.
The distinction is an importang onefor RTP, which housees a good amount of work in Nortel'ws unit that sells equipment and services to big business. That unit is doint significantly better than what hasbeen Nortel'a cash cow: sales to telephonre service providers that rely on a technolog called CDMA to builde their networks. If Nortel did emerge as an independentt company, says ABI Researchg analyst Nadine Manjaro, professionaol services and equipment for enterprises woulsd be the crux ofthe company's That could save some jobs in RTP. "Service s and enterprise is where the growthopportunitiexs are," Manjaro says. "It’ll make sense.
" If Nortel can't make that the prospect of RTP keeping many jobs becomewmuch dimmer. Business shifts, accountinhg scandals hurt company That would be an extraordinart turnaroundfor Nortel, which during the technology boom was one of the businesx world’s greatest success storiesa – and one of the largest employerse in RTP. But that boom eventually went bust, and sincew then, Nortel’s fall has been steady. The company lost grounfd to competitors, such as , that sell equipmen t for Internet transmissionsof data, voice and video. The CDMA which provided more than 40 percentof Nortel'ss sales, tanked.
And the company has been rockef by accounting scandals that caused it to restate earningx multiple times this Severaltop executives, including CEO Frank Dunn, were among the casualties. Nortel’s stock, which once traded at $1,200o U.S. on a split- and dividend-adjusted fell below $1 in Shares closed Jan. 13 at 32 cents. The company had nearly 10,000 workers in the Raleigh-Durham area in the late 1990s. That numbedr has fallen steadily since then and now stands ataboutt one-fifth of its peak.