Maria Lianos
In an NCEO webinar earlier this year, Capital Planning: Beyond the Basics, Prairie Capital Advisors' Nick Viner and Joseph Labetti walked through a framework for thinking about capital allocation in ESOP-owned companies. The session focused on a question that deserves more attention than it often receives: what is actually driving your company's stock price, and are you making intentional decisions about it?
Corey Rosen
But the poll also found that few people know much about the idea
A new poll from Expanding ESOPs shows that a large majority of Americans support the idea of employee ownership, while very few oppose it. Support is slightly higher among Democrats than Republicans. Working with the Bipartisan Policy Coalition (BPC), Expanding ESOPs hired polling firms (Public Opinion Strategies and Impact Research) to poll 1,000 registered voters.
Corey Rosen
On a party-line vote on March 17, the House Committee on Education and Workforce passed the ERISA Litigation Reform Act, a bill that would make it more difficult for plaintiffs to move through the early stages of ERISA lawsuits. The bill focuses on three areas:
Matthew Licina
As employee ownership trusts (EOTs) have grown in popularity in the US and abroad, the intersection and overlap between EOTs and steward ownership have become increasingly important. The post below presents a conversation between two EU-based figures, NCEO Fellow Graeme Nuttall and Maike Kauffmann of the Purpose Foundation, about the overlapping but distinct employee ownership and steward ownership models, and how it’s important to be clear when describing these separate but related initiatives.
Maria Lianos
In a recent NCEO webinar titled What's Driving Your ESOP Valuation?, Andy Manchir and Dan Roach of KSM CPAs & Advisors walked through the forces shaping year-end 2025 ESOP valuations and what ESOP companies can do to better understand and anticipate their results. This blog post provides an overview of the presentation.
Corey Rosen
Employees in companies with ESOPs share the rewards of work through ownership, but many ESOP companies also share some of their annual profits with employees. My new paper "How ESOP Companies Share Profits with Employees," found in the Culture and Communications section of our Document Library (NCEO member login required), explores the many approaches ESOP companies use to do this.
Corey Rosen
In the new report A Nation at Risk to A Nation at Work: The Case for a National Talent Strategy, the Bipartisan Policy Council urges Congress and the administration to improve incentives for employee ownership. Founded in 2007, the council holds meetings and issues reports on a wide variety of topics. Its current co-chairs are former Massachusetts Democratic governor Deval Patrick and former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam. The Council includes a variety of prominent former political leaders as well as thought leaders.
Maria Lianos
A change in CEO is one of the most crucial events in the life of any company. In an ESOP company, where leadership is so deeply tied to culture, relationships, and the long-term health of the plan, getting that transition right is a fiduciary responsibility. In a recent NCEO webinar, NCEO board member Mike Frommelt of Strategic Talent Partners discussed how to prepare for leadership succession with a roadmap for CEO transition.
Corey Rosen
A February 17, 2026, memo to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) from the Private Company Council (PCC), the primary advisory body to the FASB on private companies, raises the issue of whether the FASB should reconsider its current rules for accounting for ESOP repurchase obligations in private companies. Drawing on NCEO research, the memo says that private company ESOPs have grown significantly since the FASB last looked at this issue in 1993. At that time, FASB decided not to require private ESOP companies to record the repurchase obligation on their balance sheet but did require that companies provide a description of the obligation, the fair value of the shares allocated as of the balance sheet date, and the number of allocated and unallocated shares. It also concluded that redemptions of ESOP shares from participants are purchases of treasury stock, even if there is a put option, and thus are not obligations requiring recognition. The guidance can be found in FASB Accounting Standards Codification Subtopic 718-40, Employee Stock Ownership Plans, which originated in Statement of Position (SOP) 93-6, Employers’ Accounting for Employee Stock Ownership Plans.
