Employee Ownership Blog

On February 2, the Beyster Institute at the University of San Diego will offer a half-day class designed to help CPAs work with clients interested in ESOPs. The program will cover the advantages of ESOPs and what makes them a good or bad fit for a company.

On November 23, the United Kingdom's chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced that the government would end the tax benefits associated with "employee shareholder status" (ESS) and would abolish the status itself at the next legislative opportunity.

Although the incoming Trump administration has not yet provided any specific guidance on its plan regarding equity compensation, some indications are available.

[Update on December 9: The Trump transition team announced one of the candidates in our original story, Andrew Puzder, as the nominee for Secretary of Labor.

The Portland Press Herald ran a November 24 story titled More Maine construction companies are embracing employee ownership, citing three transactions this year: W

A district court in Illinois granted summary judgment in favor of Holden Industries, rejecting claims by a former ESOP participant, which were based on his reading of the summary plan description (SPD).

A November 21 article in China Economic Net examines performance results for the first three quarters of 2016 and found that most public companies with employee stock plans saw an increase in profitability.

The University of Edinburgh (Scotland) is offering an online course titled Economic Democracy: The Cooperative Alternative.

One of the few clear implications of last week's election is that the character and policy agendas of both parties will inevitably change. Many traditional core principles of the Republican Party establishment do not bind president-elect Trump, who strongly identifies as a change candidate.

Last week's elections saw many ESOP champions return to Congress, with some important exceptions. Some highlights follow:

The Empowering Employees Through Stock Ownership Act has a good chance of becoming law.

The District Court of Northern California dismissed a class-action lawsuit against the ESOP company Singler-Ernster, a California pizza-franchise operator, but left open the possibility of an amended complaint.