Employee Ownership Blog

Every year, my colleagues and I at Chartwell look forward to the NCEO's events, and this year's Fall ESOP Forum is no different. We couldn't be more excited to finally reconnect with all of our ESOP friends at this year's Forum.

Our friends at the Vermont Employee Ownership Center are currently hiring a communications and outreach coordinator. The deadline for applying is August 9, with a prospective start date in September. This is an exciting opportunity for somebody in the Burlington area to get involved with one of the most established, successful, and forward-thinking organizations in this space, and we encourage all interested parties to apply.

On June 24, 2021, Meld Studios announced that it was transitioning ownership from its three founders to an employee ownership trust (EOT) that owns shares on behalf of all 22 Meld employees.

We believe the same aspects that animate the ESOP world also animate the conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion. A healthy ownership culture is, after all, an inclusive ownership culture. For this reason, the NCEO will host a DEI workshop starting July 29.

A long-term employee-owner at Web Industries with 20-plus years at the company once told an audience of NCEO conference-goers in Minneapolis that communication and learning at an ESOP company never really ends.

Our friends across the pond have just celebrated their own employee ownership day (EO Day 2021), releasing some very promising facts and figures along with it to highlight the state of employee ownership in the UK.

Colorado has become the first state to pass a law that helps cover some of the costs to convert to employee ownership. On June 23, Governor Polis signed into law H.B. 21-1311, a bill that makes sweeping changes to Colorado tax law, notably a provision to provide $10 million annually in tax credits over the next six years to fund the professional service costs of conversions to employee ownership.

A new study conducted by John Zogby Strategies on behalf of Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA), Employee Financial Health and Sentiments Amid the Pandemic, provides evidence that employees in S corporation ESOPs suffered fewer financial setbacks compared to a sample of employees at companies without ESOPs. 

Thank you to all of the sponsors, speakers, attendees, and staff who helped make our 2021 annual conference a rousing success! It not only was the largest virtual gathering in NCEO history but with 1,940 attendees was the second-largest event we’ve ever hosted, placing it just behind our last in-person annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA.

The NCEO is excited to announce that the 2021 Fall ESOP Forum will be back in September, this time as a hybrid event! After more than a year of virtual education, the NCEO’s 2021 Forum will take place both onsite and online.

The Senate has now passed the Endless Frontier Act (S. 1260), Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) proposed an amendment that would have incorporated a version of the WORK Act (the Worker Ownership, Readiness, and Knowledge Act).

On May 5, 2021, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed the SECURE Act 2.0 (H.R. 2954).The bill makes a number of changes to retirement plan law but, unlike the version introduced last year, does not include a provision allowing owners of S corporation ESOPs to get the same Section 1042 tax deferral on the sale of stock to an ESOP trust as owners of C corporation ESOPs can.