Employee Ownership Blog

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has announced that the government will introduce legislation to prohibit companies from providing stock options to their top executives unless they make the options widely available. Details of the legislation are not yet available.

Lawsuits continue to be filed in stock drop cases for ESOPs and, more often, 401(k) plans invested in company stock in 2007, but the pace of new filings has dropped to a trickle.

U.S. District Court Judge James Rosenbaum has indicated he might want to review the settlement between former UnitedHealth CEO William McGuire and the SEC and a special UnitedHealth litigation committee.

The Innovations in Employee Ownership Award recognizes companies whose innovative ideas keep employee ownership on the leading edge of the economy.

Eight months after announcing the proposed transaction, Sam Zell has assumed control of the Tribune Company. An ESOP will own 100% of Tribune's shares and Zell will hold warrants convertible into a 40% stake in the company.

In Notice 2007-100, the IRS has provided details on transition relief for deferred compensation taxation rules under Section 409A.

FMI Consultants, the leading construction industry consulting firm, predicts that broad-based employee ownership will increasingly replace family ownership in the industry.

It's purely unscientific, but here is what I saw as the top 10 developments of the year:

In an important case, the Supreme Court has started hearing arguments in a case concerning the standing of individual participants in a defined contribution retirement plan to sue for denied benefits rather than having to sue on behalf of the entire plan. The case, James LaRue v.

The Department of Labor has eliminated the need for ESOP companies to include a copy of Schedule E, filed with the IRS, to be included in 5500 filings (72 Fed. Reg. 64,710 and 64,731, 11/16/07). Three questions on that schedule, however, will be added to Schedule R.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute, the definitive source of data on retirement plans, reports that in 2006 only 50.6% of private sector wage and salary workers between 21 and 64 worked for an employer sponsoring an employee retirement plan, and only 40.3% participated in a plan.

In Winston Churchill's maiden political speech in 1897 at Claverton Manor, he said he believed, and hoped, that "the labourer will become, as it were, a shareholder in the business in which he works." Churchill was excoriating both liberals and conservatives at the time, suggesting alternative ap