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The Beyster Institute at UC San Diego's Rady School of Business will hold its Certificate Program for Non-Professional Fiduciaries on February 9 to 12.

In PLR 200709011 and PLR 20079012, the IRS ruled that the transfer of qualified replacement property (in the context of a Section 1042 ESOP transaction) to a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) does not constitute a disposition of the QRP.

The Travelers Group, a financial services company that includes Travelers/Aetna Insurance, Smith Barney, Commercial Credit, and other businesses, will make annual contributions of stock options equal to 10% of pay to all employees participating in its 401(k) plan.

Pamela Olson, acting assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, said that the Administration would be willing to consider delaying proposed IRS regulations that would impose payroll tax withholding on incentive stock options and employee stock purchase plans if they are too burdensome.

Citing possible fiduciary and tax concerns with floor-price protection in ESOP companies, William K. Bortz, associate benefits tax counsel at the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy, said that the practice raised unanswered questions.

Daniel Hogans, an attorney-advisor in the Office of Tax Policy at the Treasury Department, told a November 17 meeting of the American Law Institute-American Bar Association that rules under Section 409A of the Code for deferred compensation cover stock awards that contain a feature extending the

In a May 31 article in Morningstar, Company Stock Ownership: The Risks Outweigh the Rewards, Mark Miller cites unpublished research by Vanguard that finds 90% of partic

The NCEO used data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to estimate trends in the number of new ESOPs created from 2007 and 2011, as well as the average value of stock purchased per transaction.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the Tribune Company will have only a nominal effect on employee retirement benefits. The ESOP was formed in 2007 as a new plan (a prior ESOP was cashed out as part of the transaction). No existing employee funds were used to help fund the plan.

The ill-fated ESOP at the Tribune Company will be terminated and replaced with a new 401(k) plan with a 4% match for employee contributions of up to 6% of pay. The company also said it will institute a profit-sharing plan.