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Showing articles tagged "Business Law" (clear)
Selling to an ESOP: ERISA's "Adequate Consideration" Requirement
How employer stock must be valued when an ESOP buys it, and what the Retire through Ownership Act changed
An ESOP lets the owner of a closely held business sell the company to its employees through a retirement trust — but because the plan buys stock from insiders, ERISA permits the purchase only for no more than "adequate consideration." Updated October 2026: the Retire through Ownership Act, signed October 15, 2026, now lets an ESOP fiduciary rely in good faith on an independent appraisal that follows IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60. This article explains the adequate consideration requirement, the Department of Labor's never-finalized regulations and withdrawn 2025 proposals, and what the new law does and does not change.
The Corporate Transparency Act: Can You Now Ignore It?
What corporate transparency means to you and current legal challenges
The Corporate Transparency Act took effect January 1, 2024, and was almost immediately challenged in the courts. After FinCEN suspended enforcement and exempted U.S. companies by interim rule in March 2025, FinCEN on August 11, 2026, issued its final rule permanently exempting all entities created in the United States — and their beneficial owners — from reporting beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN. Only foreign companies registered to do business in the United States still report, and even they do not report their U.S. owners. Read this article for more information.
The Status of No-Competition Agreements
Missouri's rules for enforcing non-compete agreements, and where federal regulation stands after the FTC's reversal
In April 2024, the FTC voted to ban nearly all non-compete agreements nationwide — then a federal court set the rule aside before it ever took effect, and the FTC itself abandoned the fight in 2025. With the federal ban dead, non-compete agreements in Missouri are governed the way they always have been: by Missouri's own reasonableness standard. Here's what that means for employers and employees alike.
