Jared Bernstein, the former chief economic advisor to Joe Biden and an influential thinker among left-leaning policy makers, released a report on January 26 titled Employee Ownership, ESOPs, We
Yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote to Apple employees about a new plan, which he called a "stock ownership program," to more broadly provide restricted stock units (RSUs).
Todd Jones, who began his career at Publix Supermarkets 36 years ago as a store clerk, will become the company's CEO in April. Publix has consistently been ranked #1 on the NCEO list of majority employee-owned companies.
Prospects for employee ownership continue to look promising in China. As we have already reported, several local governments have been privatizing enterprises they own through employee ownership.
State legislation on employee ownership is gaining momentum, with bills passed in Colorado during 2021 and in Massachusetts and California during 2022.
U.S. Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jason Smith (R-MO) introduced the Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act, which will encourage the formation of employee-owned businesses and promote retirement savings through employee stock ownership plans in S corporations. Rep.
The Department of Labor announced that it expected to re-propose its definition of a plan fiduciary in August. The new definition, expected to affect ESOP appraisers, is now called the "conflict-of-interest" rule.
On March 8, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new rules for prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) filings, rules that have raised concerns in the ESOP community. These filings are relatively rare, with about 20 per year. While ESOPs are statutorily exempt from having to make these filings, some ESOP professionals are concerned the DOL might subsequently extend the concepts in the proposal to ESOPs.
A proposed federal acquisition regulation (FAR Case 92-24) that would have limited the ability of government contractors to fund ESOPs has been withdrawn.
