Employee Ownership Blog

The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has proposed to define ESOP appraisers as fiduciaries (see "Definition of the Term 'Fiduciary,'" 29 CFR Part 2510 RIN 1210-AB32,

Five of the ESOP companies that have been named as winners of the annual Winning Workplaces award talk about their cultures in a useful compilation of short videos [link no longer active].

Many employee ownership companies have restricted stock awards for employees.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit that is easily the best source of information available on retirement plan issues, has created an extremely useful Web site to help people understand how much they need to save for retirement.

Our issue brief "Wellness Programs and Employee Ownership" has become the fastest-selling issue brief in our history, with more than 300 sold so far. The brief can be purchased for $15 for NCEO members and $25 for non-members in PDF format or in print (add $5 for shipping for print copies).

On September 28, NCEO board member Tom Roback had the opportunity to meet President Obama at one of his conversations with small groups of local people around the country. As it turned out, one of these was at Tom's sister's house in Richmond, Virginia. Tom asked the president about ESOPs.

A new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Statistical Trends in Retirement Plans (click here for the report in PDF format) finds that ESOPs held about 15% of the

Wellness Programs and Employee Ownership, a new issue brief from the NCEO, looks at the practical and legal issues of wellness programs.

Facebook and Zynga have both announced that they will charge employees substantial fees to sell their shares on secondary markets that have developed to buy stock in private companies.

The NCEO's questionnaire on the scope and characteristic of ESOP companies' repurchase obligation will be closed at the close of business on Thursday, October 21.

New data from the National Center for Employee Ownership show that ESOP companies have an exceptionally low rate of defaults on their acquisition loans.

When a C corporation converts to S status, the S corporation is taxed on all realized gains that had been built in at the time of conversion unless a holding period has been met. This normally is 10 years, but was shortened to seven years for gains realized in tax years before 2009 and 2010.