03.02.16

Retirement Plan Loans: The Pros and Cons
James Pellino

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, more than one-fifth (or 21%) of all 401(k) plan participants eligible for loans have loans outstanding at any given time. Looking out for the best interests of plan participants might involve discouraging them from borrowing against their savings, at least in the absence of a personal financial crisis. This blog summarizes plan loan requirements that all plan fiduciaries should know.

02.25.16

Cooking Up a Business Plan for Your Start-Up Restaurant

Last month, our Restaurant Group blog discussed the importance of determining a restaurant’s break-even point. This month, our focus turns to an integral part of a start-up restaurant’s lifeblood: its business plan. In this article, we analyze the three major components that are crucial to a restaurant’s business plan, including financial projections, investors’ analysis and a growth plan narrative.

02.22.16

Can Capitalization Rate Issues Affect My Property Valuation?

Capitalization rates are a critical component when real estate investors compare different investment opportunities. Unfortunately cap rates are often misunderstood and improperly derived, which can affect the accuracy of a property’s valuation. As this article explains, there’s no single approach for calculating cap rates — income and expense projections are treated differently by different parties and for different purposes.

02.17.16

Improving Your Managing Partner Compensation Model

Managing partners who reduce their rainmaking activities and billable hours to assume administrative duties can end up with smaller slices of the compensation pie. This article proposes a fair and straightforward managing partner compensation model that takes into account objective and subjective criteria.

02.12.16

Significant Change in Lease Accounting Could Cause Major Headaches

Nearly every manufacturer leases equipment or real estate. For decades, companies were not required to report many lease-related assets and liabilities on their balance sheet. That is all about to change under a controversial new lease accounting standard that is scheduled to be published in early 2016. Companies should be proactive in analyzing their lease […]

02.12.16

Listen to Your Patients: Their Opinions Matter
Jason Flahive

In a patient-centric health care world, it is critical to know what patients are thinking — whether it is about their medical care, individual physicians and staff or the practice as a whole. This article offers a number of mechanisms for gathering feedback from patients that can be put to practical use, such as encouraging online ratings and reviews or facilitating feedback from home.

02.05.16

Keys to a Successful Development Department
Sarah G. Widlock

Many not-for-profit organizations consider fundraising as their main source of revenue. However, so many organizations fail to focus a significant amount of their energy and resources into their development or fundraising departments. Why is it that hiring, maintaining and training individuals who will focus their efforts on coordinating fundraising initiatives, so far from directors’ minds? This article examines this question further and will help not-for-profit organizations realize the importance of investing in their development departments.

02.04.16

Examining Stanley v. U.S.’s Impact on the Definition of ‘Real Estate Professional’

The 2015 federal district court case in the Western District of Arkansas, Fayetteville Division, Stanley v. U.S., involved Carol A. and Roy E. Stanley. The case centers on whether the taxpayers qualified as “real estate professionals,” which would allow them to deduct rental losses from a rental activity in which they materially participate against ordinary income. In this Real Estate Group blog, we closely examine Stanley v. U.S., and detail the ways in which the case has impacted the definition of a “real estate professional.”

02.02.16

Tibble Case Puts Focus on Fiduciaries’ Ongoing Duties

During 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the ongoing duty of retirement plan fiduciaries to monitor plan investments. Tibble v. Edison International has been percolating through the federal court system since 2007. The article reviews the case’s focus on the timing of lawsuits against plan fiduciaries for breaches of their fiduciary duty.

01.29.16

Motions vs. Action: The Skills Gap

Motion versus action. Words that appear to have similar meaning and yet have a different outcome. Blank suggests it’s the difference between cycling toward sealing that partnership versus being stuck on the perpetual stationary bike of “waiting to hear back.”