Blue Ridge ESOP Associates Industry News

Please note the following article is directly from The ESOP Association which was posted May 19, 2023.

REDEEMING

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (“SECURE Act”) contained provisions aimed at increasing access to tax-advantaged accounts and changes to required minimum distribution rules.   The budget bill signed by President Biden on December 23, 2022 included the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”). SECURE 2.0 builds on the SECURE Act with changes aimed to strengthen the retirement system and financial preparedness upon retirement.

Been there, done that with your annual ESOP meeting? Looking for a new way to convey your critically important ownership message? Add new energy this year with one of Blue Ridge ESOP Communication team’s field-tested, ESOP-focused presentations and interactive activities.

Workplace Development Inc. will become a Blue Ridge Company

The National Center for Employee Ownership founder and senior staff member, Corey Rosen, has written a thorough article in regards to "The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill with many parts that was signed into law on December 29, contains major wins for employee ownership as part of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022."

Eligibility, vesting and allocation requirements can be complicated and are frequently misinterpreted as being intertwined. They can be particularly confusing when there are frequent references to a Year of Service for all three items, however, each of these provisions need to be treated separately.  

After weighing pros and cons, you took the plunge and created an ESOP! Congratulations! This is new and exciting for everyone involved. You may have annual meetings to hand out statements, you may run contests to see who can guess the annual stock price, or you may hold events in October for Employee Ownership Month. You want your employees to share in the excitement of being part of an ESOP and throughout the life of an ESOP, you want to continue that excitement. You want your future employees to feel as much enthusiasm for the ESOP as there was when it was first implemented. To do that, you want to ensure new employees will have an opportunity to have ownership in the company.

Blue Ridge ESOP Associates (Blue Ridge) has dedicated resources this past year to enhance the ESOPConnection™ experience. ESOPConnection™ is an online tool that provides direct access to plan information, record keeping, and education resources. Blue Ridge is excited to announce that we will soon be implementing an updated version of ESOPConnection™. The core functionality of ESOPConnection™ will remain the same as it is today, however it will have a more modern look.  

Labor unions have been on the decline for several decades, but lately there has been uptick in interest. Workers are feeling more powerful during the Great Resignation and the corporate battle to find new employees. Many employees feel there have been inequities embedded in corporate America and income inequality is real. Over the past three years, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 500 had added new members like the Maryland Institute College of Art, Howard University and the Democratic National Committee. Employees at Starbucks have moved to organize unions after working conditions worsened during the pandemic. Some think Starbucks has closed several locations due to employee organizers, but Starbucks corporate claimed these locations were in dangerous neighborhoods and were not profitable. These labor union movements have grown in many industries or schools that are not suitable for employee ownership through an ESOP, but some workers should look at an ESOP to help meet their goals.