Fortney Stark (D-CA) has introduced the House version of the "Ending the Double Standard for Stock Options Act," a bill that mirrors the Senate bill of the same title (S. 1940) introduced by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ). The bill has two principal provisions:
A U.S. district court in Missouri ruled that an employment-related complaints that revolved around alleged promises made by Amsted Industries in conjunction with its ESOP were not preempted by ERISA and could be pursued under state law (Thrailkill v. Amsted Industries, Inc., May 31, 2000).
Many state laws do not conform in whole or in part to the retirement and ESOP provisions of the new tax bill. This could cause significant problems for companies and employees that exceed the contribution limits under old law.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 included an appropriation of $10 billion for another round of funding for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), a program that has been in place since 2010. SSBCI funds might make it easier for lenders to ESOPs to provide larger and less collateralized ESOP loans or for mezzanine lenders to loan at lower rates.
In an op-ed in the West Branch Times (Iowa), Jake Krob, the co-publisher, describes why he is comfortable selling the newspapers he owns to an employee-owned company. Newspaper owners, he says, are stewards.
In an intriguing article in the WorldatWork Journal (4th quarter, 2007), Timothy Clark of George Washington University and Balaji Krishnamurthy, CEO of LogiStyle, propose an intriguing model of paying bonuses to employees ("Executive Stewardship Incentives from Innovative Bonus-Payout Meth
In the wake of the market collapse, a number of lawsuits are being filed by participants arguing that fiduciaries of their 401(k) plans or, less often, ESOPs should have removed company stock as an investment option and/or notified employees of impending financial problems.
According to a Fiduciary Counselors compilation of lawsuits involving employer stock, the 53 cases filed between since the late 1990s have resulted in approximately $1.47 billion in judgments and settlements.
