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ESOP Association Resources

May. 31
The history of M. Dyer Global started off with the vision of Medford Dyer back in the late 1960s.  At the time, only a few agents assisted the Department of Defense with logistic services in the Pacific.  He started M. Dyer & Sons in 1968 when his oldest son was still in elementary school.  He purchased a few trucks and a forklift by mortgaging his house, rented a warehouse, and soon after, about a dozen employees joined him to start M. Dyer & Sons.  
May. 24
An ESOP can connect employee actions with company success, but that doesn’t automatically result in employee-owners taking responsibility for the success of the company. Sharing financial information is a critical first step to provide employee-owners with an understanding of how the business is doing. In addition, it’s essential to build people’s financial literacy and create systems for participation that empower employee-owners to act on the financial information shared and positively impact company performance. 
What financial information should you share? 
May. 17
Every spring, a portion of the TEA Board of Directors turns over as terms expire and a new slate of nominees are put before the Association’s membership for election. This spring will also bring forward a biennial change in officers alongside those new faces joining the Board for the first time. Terms will begin on May 1 and last for two years. 
May. 10
Anyone involved with the ESOP community for any length of time has been confronted, and confounded, by the difficulties posed by the U.S. Department of Labor.  The DOL’s enforcement division – the Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) – was tasked under ERISA with serving as the protector of employee beneficiaries of qualified retirement plans.  
May. 03
DOL Commits to Provide Long-Sought Regulatory Clarity with Stakeholder Input on the Valuation of Company Shares to be Bought by an ESOP
In a major victory for ESOPs, the U.S. Department of Labor earlier this month committed to move forward with a public notice and comment rulemaking on a key regulation the employee ownership community has sought since ESOPs were first created in 1974. The regulation will clearly define Adequate Consideration under Section 408(e) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), something The ESOP Association has long fought for.
May. 01
One of the key things needed for effective advocacy is a considered and well-thought-out agenda.  Over the past year, The ESOP Association’s Public Policy Council (PPC), first constituted in 2021, has been engaged in an organization-wide effort to identify and expand on our agenda.  Input from TEA members was solicited online, via town halls at TEA conferences, at chapter events, and through TEA’s Public Policy Council.  We are pleased to now release the results of this process.   
ESOP Blog, Resource
Jan. 31
I am hearing increasingly from certain thought leaders that current ESOP laws do not create “good” employee ownership plans.
Anytime we ESOP advocates encounter someone who takes such a view of ESOPs, we need to ask ourselves, “Why does that person think ESOPs are not good employee ownership plans?” When we know the answer, we can counter the ESOP cynic’s point of view.
In my experience, there are three main criticisms of ESOPs. I’ll deal with each one in a separate blog post.
The first criticism maintains that ESOPs are bad retirement plans.
ESOP Blog, Resource
Jan. 17
For some time now, the data have shown that businesses with employee stock ownership are clearly better than conventionally owned companies at retaining employees. But new insights gleaned from existing research data show that, over a period of 12 years, businesses with employee stock ownership have gotten increasingly and dramatically better than conventionally owned firms at retaining employees.
How much better? Try 235 percent better!
ESOP Blog, Resource
Jan. 03
It would be easy for us to sit back and bask in the comfortable knowledge that the Congressional tax committees did not draft tax reform measures that negatively affect ESOPs.
Certainly, that is good news. But we can’t let that recent success cause us to remain ignorant of the fact there remain plenty of people who do not believe in the things that we believe—that ESOPs are good for our nation, our companies, and employees.
Sometimes that dislike for ESOPs can be harder to spot, because it is hidden under an apparent love for different forms of employee ownership.