Joe Yonadi is a partner in the Tax Strategy & Benefits Practice, where he advises clients on ERISA fiduciary governance and litigation prevention, employee stock ownership plans, executive compensation, and employee benefit and compensation issues in merger and acquisitions.
Joe’s ESOP practice includes advising sellers, lenders and trustees with respect to their ongoing ESOP compliance and fiduciary governance matters. In addition, he assists business owners with assessing the benefits of utilizing an ESOP as a succession planning tool.
Joe provides counsel to retirement plan committees relating to their ERISA fiduciary obligations ranging from retirement plan investments to mitigating the risks around retirement plan fees. In addition, with the increase in regulatory enforcement around privacy and data security within retirement plans, Joe is well suited to assist retirement plan committees with assessing their risk in this increasingly high-risk area. Joe has a sub-specialty in privacy and data security stemming from his in-house experience at a global retail and manufacturing company, where he earned his CIPP/US certification, and played a key role in advising the newly established global privacy and data security department with incident responses, privacy and data security assessments, and negotiating privacy and data security contractual provisions into a variety of companywide contracts.
Joe maintains a sophisticated executive compensation practice that includes assisting companies of all sizes with the design and implementation of nonqualified deferred compensation plans, long-term incentive plans, stock option plans, employee stock purchase plans, phantom equity plans, and alternative equity structures for S-Corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships. Clients find that his practical guidance and financial acumen greatly assist them to not only navigate around the legal landmines found in Internal Revenue Code Sections 409A, 280G and 162(m), but also provides them with invaluable insight into setting performance metrics that strategically align with each clients’ financial goals.
As part of Joe’s executive compensation practice, he devotes a portion of his time on international equity compensation matters. He advises US and non-US multinational corporations on both the legal and tax implications of granting equity in foreign jurisdictions around the globe.
Joe is the current Co-chair of the HR Committee for Shoes and Clothes for Kids, a Cleveland nonprofit that provides thousands of school-aged children with new clothes and new shoes.
Qualified Retirement Plan and Fiduciary Responsibility
Employee Stock Ownership Plans
Executive Compensation
Mergers and Acquisitions of Employee Benefit Plans
Global Equity Compensation
Publications
Speaking Engagements