Employee Ownership Blog

NCEO

CARES Act Provides Substantial Economic Assistance in an ESOP-Friendly Manner

Title 1 of the CARES Act directs the U.S. Small Business Administration to make certain loans to qualifying small businesses to cover payroll, costs related to continuing group health care benefits, salaries or commissions, payment of interest on any mortgage obligation, rent, utilities, and debt obligations incurred before the covered period. Generally, the law applies to companies with 500 or fewer employees, with some exceptions, most notably for multi-location restaurants and hospitality companies and for larger companies that meet the SBA size standards anyway. ESOP companies can apply for this assistance, and some of the normal barriers that they might face have been removed.

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Loren Rodgers

The NCEO's commitments to you

We at the NCEO have always seen ourselves as your partners. We exist to make employee ownership thrive, and that mission determines what we do: serve the needs of you who are reading this.

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Corey Rosen

On Changing the Format of Our Annual Conference

Thirty-nine years ago, we held our first annual conference. We had 175 attendees, including my uncle Bernie. Last year we sold out at over 1,900; this year, we were on track to sell out even sooner at over 2,000. The conference is one of the most important ways we help make employee ownership grow and thrive. It is also over one-third of our annual revenue and provides most of the profit we use to support all the other work we do, such as research and outreach, that is essential to employee ownership but does not generate revenue. We devote approximately the equivalent of three full-time staff people per year to the event. I know many of you really look forward to the conference every year, just as I do. One of my favorite spring rituals is checking in each day on how many new registrations we are getting and looking forward to reconnecting with all the inspiring people I have gotten to know over the years, as well as meeting so many new ones. I come back reenergized for another year, and it is part of why I count my ongoing role as a pretty much full-time volunteer for the NCEO as an extraordinary blessing.

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Corey Rosen

New DOL Process Agreement Adds Provisions on Indemnification and Control

A new process agreement between the Department of Labor and Farmers National Bank (FNB) was made public on February 28. It lays out a much more detailed process for evaluating whether an ESOP actually has and can pay for control. It also prevents FNB from accepting indemnification and sets new hurdles for the advancement of fees in legal cases. The agreement was included in a settlement in the case of Scalia v. The Farmers National Bank of Danville and Weddle Bros. Construction Company, No. 1:20-cv-674 (S.D. Ind. Feb 28, 2020). Process agreements apply only to the parties involved, but they may indicate how the DOL would proceed in other actions. While much of the agreement reiterates prior agreements, this new one lays out some potentially troubling issues.

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Loren Rodgers

The Spring 2020 CEPI Exam Prep Course Is Open

The NCEO has launched the Spring 2020 CEPI Exam Prep Course. Candidates for the Certified Equity Professional designation, offered by the Certified Equity Professional Institute at Santa Clara University, receive access to our online learning environment with hundreds of sample questions, answers, and explanations; a practice final exam; webinars on the four subject areas (accounting; taxation; corporate and securities law; and equity plan design, analysis, and administration) for all three levels; a Quick Reference Guide for use during studying; and supplemental study documents. This year's exams will be held May 18 to 23, with a full schedule and FAQs available online.

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Corey Rosen

Broad-Based Stock Plans Remain Prevalent in Fortune Best 100 Companies to Work For

Forty of the 78 employers among the 2020 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For that can offer stock plans have some kind of broad-based plan. Twenty-two of the organizations cannot have stock plans because they are nonprofits (mostly in health care), law or accounting firms, or a consumer cooperative (REI). The percentage of eligible companies offering these plans on the list has been around 50% since its inception.

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