Employee Ownership Blog

NCEO Events & Webinars

The Repurchase Obligation Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Insights from the NCEO June Community Conversation

When ESOP practitioners gather to talk honestly about the repurchase obligation, one of the first things worth reframing is the language itself. "Obligation" sounds like a burden, but as NCEO Peer Network Manager Kimberly McCourtney put it at the opening of the June Community Conversation, the repurchase obligation is a feature of your ESOP plan, not a bug. NCEO research shows that ESOP companies distributed $166 billion in 2023 alone. A growing repurchase obligation is, more often than not, a sign of a thriving company and a well-run plan.

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Corey Rosen

DOL Schedules Valuation Regulations for November 2026

The US Department of Labor (DOL) released its 2026 rule list, which states that it will issue ESOP valuation regulations in November 2026. The regulations are required by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. The DOL issued proposed regulations in December 2025, but they were rescinded along with all other pending regulations when the new administration took office the next month. 

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Corey Rosen

New NCEO Task Force Examines Effect of Repurchase Obligations on Value

A new NCEO task force of trustees is examining how an ESOP company’s repurchase obligation should affect its stock value. The repurchase obligation can be a significant financial cost for ESOP companies, but this liability is currently not reflected on the balance sheet or income statement. Historically, valuation firms ignored the potential impact of repurchase obligations, arguing that the company could always simply be sold and the obligation would go away. The effect of this in some companies was that they were forced to sell to meet their repurchase obligations, whereas they would not have had to if the share price had been adjusted all along for the ongoing liability. In a few extreme cases, companies that had rapid cyclical growth followed by cyclical decline have found that their repurchase obligations to employees who left at a high point forced them into bankruptcy.

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NCEO Events & Webinars

What Changes When You Lead in an Employee-Owned Company

Making the move from a traditional corporate environment to an employee-owned company is a bigger shift than most leaders expect. In a recent NCEO webinar, Susan Bunz and Brian Kingery of Stellar Industries, a 100% employee-owned work truck equipment manufacturer, shared reflections on what that transition looks like from the inside. Their conversation, facilitated by leadership coach Melisa Gillis, surfaced some honest lessons for leaders at any stage of the ESOP journey.

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Corey Rosen

NJ Legislature Passes Major Employee Ownership Bill

New Jersey bill A5016/S4218, which would establish a program in the state Economic Development Administration to “encourage employee ownership awareness and provide funding and advisory support,” has now passed both chambers of the state legislature. The bill makes permanent a program created under former Governor Phil Murphy in 2024 to provide technical assistance and outreach and to help defray the costs of feasibility studies for companies considering employee ownership transitions. The current governor, Mikie Sherrill, is expected to sign the bill.

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NCEO Events & Webinars

What Boards and Leaders of Mature ESOPs Need to Plan for Next

For many ESOP companies, the early years are defined by a familiar set of priorities: paying down debt, building employee communication, and getting comfortable with plan administration. But what happens after clearing those hurdles? In a recent NCEO webinar, Kyle Wishing of PCE Investment Bankers walked through the challenges and opportunities that emerge once an ESOP has reached maturity (generally understood as being 10 or more years in) with selling shareholders paid in full and a second generation of leadership taking the helm.

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