The Board’s Duty to Monitor the ESOP Trustee on the ESOP Valuation Process

The courts and the Department of Labor (DOL) have made it very clear that boards of directors in ESOP companies have a duty to monitor how the ESOP trustee oversees the valuation process and to make sure that the plan is not paying more than fair market value to outside sellers and not less than fair market value to plan participants at diversification or distribution