Digital Signature Lawfulness for Company Bonus Letter in United States

How to eSign a document: digital signature lawfulness for Company Bonus Letter in United States

hi my name is robert shelley with shelley law and my law firm assists physicians with employment contract issues today i'm going to talk about when should a resident receive a signing bonus and the timing of it is important and that's why i'm going to talk about this today so when a resident is finishing up training they've likely already signed an employment contract or more importantly when they're negotiating the employment contract usually in their you know early pgy3 year some pgy2 when they receive the signing bonus is important for a couple of factors one as a resident physician they simply don't make a lot of money and so if they live in if they're training in new york and they get a job in california depending upon how large their family is it could be a substantial amount of money to move all the way across country now almost every employer that someone signs with as a resident is going to offer some kind of relocation assistance so usually between five to fifteen thousand dollars you won't see above fifteen thousand dollars really as far as relocation assistance goes so somewhere along there they should pay for the entire amount to be honest um and some people who are moving a short distance can also use the relocation assistance money for let's say travel to go back to the city to look for an apartment or a home so you know airline lodging all that kind of stuff some people are able to use that money to go towards either security deposit or maybe um you know the first couple months rent most employers are fairly flexible uh you know kind of what the physician can use that money for but they want it to be housing related and you know or relocation related in some manner now the timing of when you get paid is important so usually the physician will be offered two different bonuses one would be the relocation assistance as i said before somewhere between five to fifteen thousand and then they'll also be offered a signing bonus as well [Music] that usually is paid out during their first pay period so whenever they get paid first after they start with the employer that's when they would receive the bonus that that's normally there's obviously different ways of doing it now most of the time an employer will say unless it's like a big hospital network that has established relationships with moving companies you know let's just say you're running private practice then they'll basically say you know pay your moving expenses submit us the receipts and then we'll reimburse you well for some people you know outlaying ten to fifteen thousand dollars to move is difficult simply because as i said before you're not um you know a wealthy doctor when you're still in training so what we do is you know we kind of assess the situation for the physician and then we determine all right is it helpful if you get this prior to moving obviously uh how soon before you're done with training do you need the money and so we can say to the employer hey look it would really help us out defray the cost of the move if we receive this prior to moving or more importantly maybe the employer would be willing to pay the amount directly to the moving company and that way there's no outlay of cash by the physician which is kind of the entire point of that the bonus the signing bonus can also the timing of when that's paid can be important as well so depending upon the size of the signing bonus sometimes we can say all right we would like half upon execution of the agreement so when you sign the actual agreement and it's signed by both parties that's called the execution of the agreement and so many times we can say we'll get half upon signing and then the other half you know when they start and then both of these bonuses are going to have some kind of repayment obligation tied to it at least it normally would so meaning let's say the physician has a two to your initial term the employer will state if you leave before the two-year initial term you'll owe us some kind of prorated portion of the bonuses back so it could be quarterly forgiveness monthly forgiveness yearly forgiveness so let's say someone was given a thirty thousand dollar signing bonus and then they say all right half of it is forgiven after the first year and then the other half is forgiven after the second year so if the physician left between the first and second years they do they go back fifteen thousand dollars so the employer is insulated from the physician simply taking the bonuses early and then you know kind of splitting out on the job by signing the agreement in advance and then there being language in there that talks about the repayment obligations so if the employer is kind of expressing concerns about that and maybe they just simply are don't utilize that that would be a kind of a good way of saying well look if you're concerned about me just taking the money and leaving then let's put in these repayment obligations and therefore uh you know you're protected if i were to leave and then i benefit by getting the money in advance so that's kind of a discussion of when the resident should receive the signing bonus or relocation assistance it's just dependent upon the situation for some people it's fine receiving it after the fact but for others it's really important to have it up front so just some things to think about if you have any questions you can always contact my law firm at the phone number listed below in the description uh or you can reach us through our website shelleylaw.com c-h-e-l-l-e law.com again my name is robert shelley appreciate you watching the video thanks [Music]