$60,000 Stock Certificate Framed, Not Sold

The difficulty of explaining stock ownership to employees was driven home recently by Steven Lear, who oversees the ESOP at U.S. Sugar, a majority employee owned company and one of the largest sugar processors in the world. An employee left with a $60,000 account balance. He received a stock certificate with an explanation of how to sell it back to the company. When the period during which he could sell it expired, the company sent representatives to his house to figure out why he hadn't sold. He showed them the framed certificate and told them he thought it was just a certificate of appreciation. They explained to him that it was actually worth $60,000 and that he should sell it back to the company.