GERRY RIGBY represents a diverse group of family controlled businesses, which present a gamut of legal and tax issues. Gerry advises such businesses on issues from the proper choice of entity, the advantage of different capitalization structures, relations among owners, financing asset and real estate acquisitions, qualifying as Women or Minority Business enterprises and passing the business to the next generation.

Gerry also concentrates his practice in employee and shareholder compensation and benefit planning. He has significant experience in developing tax advantaged programs and strategies to compensate owner-employees, executives and rank and file employees. This includes the special needs of tax-exempt, governmental and charitable employers. Gerry interacts on a regular basis with the employee plans/exempt organizations branch of the Internal Revenue Service and the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Gerry has guided businesses of all sizes in a wide array of benefit and compensation issues. Examples include:

* Designing a defined benefit plan that allocates 94% of the contribution to the shareholder/executive of a small business
* Amended a new comparability plan to improve the permitted discrimination in favor of the highly compensated shareholder/members of a medium sized professional service business
* Implemented an incentive stock option plan that provided qualified stock options to over 100 employees of a growing high-tech software developer
* Obtained reinstatement for a missionary society in the Cumulative List of Exempt Organizations of the IRS and obtained exemption from the obligation to file the annual Form 990
* Obtained a Private Letter Ruling for the Section 457 Plan of a governmental organization
* Obtained Closing Agreements from the IRS under both voluntary and involuntary Closing Agreement Program applications to the IRS
* Guided a 450 participant 401(k) plan through an IRS office audit.

As a result of his involvement in compensation and benefit planning, Gerry is often called upon to assist closely held family businesses in planning for the transfer of ownership and control of the business from one generation to the next. This often involves working with the Estate Planning department of the Firm to coordinate the business succession with the overall Estate Plans of various family members. Gerry also works with Financial Planners to implement and fund various aspects of succession plans. This often involves coordination with other members of the Corporate Department in structuring appropriate buy/sell or shareholder agreements.

Gerry will supervise the Firm’s guidance to its clients in implementing the GUST (General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, and the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reformed Act of 1998), changes required to all defined contribution and defined benefit plans qualified under the Internal Revenue Code. In most instances, this will require the amendment and restatement of the qualified plans and obtaining a new determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service. The Firm has already submitted its Volume Submitter Plans to the Internal Revenue Service for approval of the GUST changes.

Gerry has served as a Director of the Union League of Philadelphia. He continues to serve as a Trustee of the Youth Work Foundation of the Union League of Philadelphia. He actively works with the Northlight Community Center, which serves the Roxborough/Manyunk section of Philadelphia.

He is a member of the State and Local Tax Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Gerry is the resident Partner of the Firm’s Philadelphia office.

Gerry has been an attorney and shareholder with Archer & Greiner since 1988. He earned his law degree from the New York University School of Law in 1970 and received an advanced Masters Degree in Taxation from NYU in 1979. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in History with Honors from the University of Rochester in 1967. Gerry was a Lecturer in Business Law in the MBA Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for several years in the mid-‘70's. Gerry has also written and published a number of articles on various tax topics.