Confirmed Faculty, Agenda, & Bios

Speaker

Topic(s)

Louis R. Richey, JD

Senior Vice President

McCamish Systems, LLC

SEGMENT 1

“5 Things Every Existing or Potential New Plan Sponsor

Should Know About 409A”

   * Up-to-the Minute 409A Updates

  * 409A has not changed the Executive's needs for retirement income

  * 409A potentially applies to any "compensatory" arrangement/

     technique between an employer and its employees, directors,

     & independent contractors that does not involve current

     compensation, and prior existing plans are "broke"

  * Attractive nonqualified deferred compensation plans can still be

     designed under 409A, and there some positive new plan features

     possible.

  * 409A makes proper on-going administration with systems designed

     for nonqualified plans more important than ever

  * Companies with existing plans and companies considering plans

     should act now in 2007 because of 409A transition & election rules

Elizabeth E. Drigotas

Principal

Deloitte Tax LLP

SEGMENT 2

“Equity & Transactions”

  * Equity awards -- permissible classes of stock and transition issues

  * Equity in transactions -- permissible conversions/rollovers

  * Transactions in general -- plan terminations or rollovers;

     due diligence issues

William F. Sweetnam, Jr.

Partner

Groom Law Group

SEGMENT 3

“Severance Plans”

  * How severance plans will comply or be exempt from 409A

  * Can a severance plan be amended to provide for a "good reason"
     termination?

  * How to structure and document post-termination benefits

  * Change in control agreements and 409A

Neil Beaton

Partner in Charge

Valuation Services Group

Grant Thornton LLP

SEGMENT 4

"Valuation"

 * Are different values for tax and financial reporting purposes acceptable? 
 * The use of discounts and premiums Stock option valuation

    methodologies

         - What should go into your report?
 * Pitfalls to avoid

Deborah Lifshey, Esq.
Vice President
Pearl Meyer & Partners

SEGMENT 5

 * Section 457(f) (interplay with not-for-profit)

 * Impact on Perks/Benefits

 Segment 6

Audience Q&A - All Participants

Who Should Attend?

Teleconference Date & Time

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm (EST)

Registration Code: WEB or call 646.202.9344

Sponsor this event  Speak at this event

Louis R. Richey, JD

Senior Vice President

McCamish Systems, LLC

Bio:

Mr. Richey is currently a senior officer with McCamish Systems, LLC in Atlanta, Georgia. McCamish Systems is one of the nation’s leading providers of outsourced administrative support for life insurance carriers and other financial services organizations. McCamish Systems, LLC is a major provider of sophisticated insurance product (life insurance, annuities, etc.), broker licensing and payment, internal management, and support software applications for substantial financial intermediaries. McCamish currently has 6 of the top 10 life insurance companies in the USA as its clients, as well as serving as the backroom in many of these areas for a number of other significant financial intermediaries. McCamish also assists financial service organizations, such as major banks, mutual fund companies, brokerage firms, and life insurance carriers with their marketing efforts through Internet powered consultative sales, administration, and communication platforms & systems developed by its Retirement Services Group. Mr. Richey helps lead this group.

Currently, Mr. Richey is the content expert for all of McCamish’s executive and employee benefit web platforms, including Deferral+®, 457Deferral+™, Benefitfolio™ and Advisorfolio™. However, he is widely known as a financial products and services marketing innovator, and author. He is also recognized as an experienced executive and employee benefits attorney, with special expertise on 409A nonqualified deferred compensation plans. Prior to joining McCamish, he was also a key Principal in Magner.Network, LLC and also the Magner.Network Retirement Advisors Consulting Group that did select executive compensation and benefit consulting assignments for corporations. He is a 409A national authority with 30 year’s experience in executive and employee benefits compensation consulting, planning and insurance for Fortune 1000 public, closely held and not-for-profit companies. Prior to McCamish and Magner, Mr. Richey served as a senior marketing officer, technical compensation & benefits client consultant, and product/application design specialist for several significant financial services and compensation & benefit consulting organizations, including the American Express Company, the General American Life Insurance Company, William M. Mercer, and several offices of the Management Compensation Group (MCG) and M Group.

Elizabeth E. Drigotas

Principal

Deloitte Tax LLP

Bio:

Elizabeth Drigotas is a Principal in the Washington, D.C. office of Deloitte Tax LLP, focusing on employee benefits and executive compensation. Prior to joining Deloitte Tax, Ms. Drigotas worked as an Attorney Advisor in the Office of the Benefits Tax Counsel for the U.S. Treasury Department. During her tenure there, she participated in a number of regulatory projects including golden parachute regulations, incentive stock option regulations, section 401(k) and (m) regulations, regulations permitting individuals over age 50 to make additional contributions, and regulations applicable to ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans). She is a frequent speaker and writer on issues concerning employee benefits and compensation.

Elizabeth received an A.B. in History from Bowdoin College in Maine, and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the Employee Benefits Committee, Section of Taxation, American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas and the Maryland State Bar Association

William F. Sweetnam, Jr.

Partner

Groom Law Group

Bio:

Before joining Groom in May 2005, Bill was the Benefits Tax Counsel in the Office of the Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Benefits Tax Counsel is the principal legal advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy with regard to all aspects of employee benefits taxation and related matters, including pensions, health care and executive compensation. Bill was the Treasury's primary contact with Congress with regard to the IRA and pension provisions in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Bill also led the team at the Treasury in its guidance efforts with regard to consumer-directed health care (such as Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements) and the new executive deferred compensation rules.

Prior to the Treasury Department, Bill was Tax Counsel on the Majority Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, under the chairmanship of Senator William V. Roth of Delaware. At the Committee, he was responsible for tax matters in the areas of employee benefits (pensions, medical plans, and executive compensation), retirement savings vehicles (such as IRAs), insurance and tax-exempt organizations (including charitable giving). During his tenure, Bill was involved with the Retirement Savings and Security Act (which unanimously passed through the Finance Committee), the Patients’ Bill of Rights and the IRS personnel flexibility provisions in the IRS Reform and Restructuring Act.

Bill’s government work has taught him that, as he observes, “The law is a living thing that changes all the time. From a legislative perspective, I tried to help direct some of that change, especially during my time in government.” He believes that the nature of employee benefits law makes it all the more important to try to influence change in the most positive way possible. “One of the reasons I chose employee benefits,” he says, “was that, in the end, you were trying to help workers and their families—either helping them to prepare for the future through retirement plan benefits or to help keep them healthy and safe through medical and insurance benefits.”

Bill is admitted to practice in New York and Washington, D.C.

Neil Beaton

Partner in Charge

Valuation Services Group

Grant Thornton LLP

Bio:

As Partner in Charge of Grant Thornton LLP’s Valuation Services Group, Mr. Beaton specializes in the valuation of closely held businesses and intangible assets for purposes of litigation support (marriage dissolutions, lost profits claims and others), acquisitions, sales, buy-sell agreements, ESOPs, incentive stock options, and estate planning and taxation. He also performs economic analysis for personal injury claims, wrongful termination and wrongful death actions.
 

Prior to joining Grant Thornton LLP, Mr. Beaton was a Partner and shareholder at Brueggeman and Johnson, P.C., Seattle’s largest, independent valuation firm. He was also a National Business Analyst with Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, where he was responsible for analyzing large, publicly traded corporations and assisting in large-scale credit decisions. He specialized in the banking, insurance and financial services industries.
Mr. Beaton holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from National University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics, from Stanford University. He has also completed specific coursework covering the financial analysis of banks and insurance companies and numerous continuing education classes in the areas of accounting, taxation and business valuation. In addition, he has completed the American Society of Appraisers’ Business Valuation Courses, Levels I–IV.

Deborah Lifshey, Esq.
Vice President
Pearl Meyer & Partners

Bio:

Deborah Lifshey, a Vice President, has been with Pearl Meyer & Partners since 2001. She specializes in advising clients on compensation matters from a legal perspective including securities disclosure, taxation and, corporate governance issues, as well as negotiation contracts and reasonableness opinion letters. She is a graduate of the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell University and the University of Florida College of Law, and served as a federal clerk for the Honorable Judge Susan H. Black on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to joining Pearl Meyer & Partners, Ms. Lifshey practiced at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where she specialized in executive compensation, ERISA matters and corporate transactions, and at Holland and Knight, where she specialized in employment litigation matters.

Ms. Lifshey has authored and/or co-authored the following works: The New Qualified Plan Minimum Distribution Rules, The New York Law Journal (Winter, 1996); IRS Changes Rules Through Field Service Advice – This Time on FICA and ESPP, Journal of Taxation of
Employee Benefits, RIA Group Publishing (January/February 2000); Perquisites, Executive Compensation and Benefits Handbook, BNA Publications (2002); Negotiating and Drafting Employment Agreements, Executive Compensation and Benefits Handbook (2004); and Executive Compensation: The Perspective of the Compensation Consultant, Chapter 15 of Corporate Governance: Law and Practice (2005). She is also a frequent speaker and
panelist on disclosure and taxation issues, and has been quoted by various journals on executive compensation best practices.

She is a member of the New York and Florida Bars.