Blue Ridge ESOP Associates Industry News

The Heart of America's 19th Annual Fall ESOP Conference is coming up next week! There is still time today to register here. At this conference, our professionals Chad Guzinski and Scott Freund will be available to give an overview of the additional services we provide along with our standard ESOP & 401k administration services. On Thursday, you will have the opportunity to hear Anthony Brunsvold present about the Three R's of Distributions and Their Impact on Cash Flow & Repurchase. In this technical session, experienced practitioners will explain the real meaning behind the terms Recycling, Redeeming and Releveraging and how each impacts the ESOP.

The "Main Street Ownership Act" was signed into law on Monday under the "National Defense Authorization Act". In May we shared that this new pro-ESOP legislation is a bi-partisan bill that allows an easier transition for small businesses to become employee owned. Thank you Senator Gillibrand for  drafting a bill that is now law which will  support the future growth of ESOPs.

In the upcoming months, Members of Congress will have several weeks to work in their districts. This is a great time for Employee Owned Companies to plan Congressional site visits which allow Members to see first hand the benefits of employee ownership and the value of pro-ESOP legislation.

On June 19, 2017, the NCEO created the Employee Ownership Index, an index of 28 publicly traded companies that had both broad-based employee ownership and had won one of three major national employer rating awards, each of which puts a high emphasis on employee engagement (Fortune's Best Companies to Work for, the Gallup Engagement Index, and the Enterprise Engagement Alliance awards). Broad-based employee ownership included ESOPs where there was an average account balance of $30,000 or more and companies that provided equity grants to most or all full-time employees.

Are you tired of paying fees for former participants with small account balances? Are you concerned with uncashed distribution checks as you try to meet your obligations in finding participants who disappear? There are solutions.

Need a basic training course to help you understand the basics, financial issues and operations of an ESOP? Corey Rosen, the founder of the NCEO, has developed a new self-paced study to help participants gain such knowledge. The program is divided into 5 mini-courses which includes 20 webinar recordings and 20 sets of scenario based quizzes covering 18 topics regarding ESOPs. We encourage you to check out this resource and find out more information here.

Congratulations to Wawa for being named by Forbes as one of the best employers in America.

Employee-owned company, NewAge Industries, in Pennsylvania, invited Governor Tom Wolf to their facility. The tour showcased the financial and moral values employees gain when they are a part of business ownership noticed by Governor Wolf as he pointed out "the number of 'employees smiling'." After the tour, a roundtable was held between the executives of NewAge and Governor Wolf which included the discussion about how the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership is exemplary in promoting growth of companies through employee ownership. More highlights about this tour and meeting can be read here. Company tours like this one for key decision makers demonstrate the benefits of pro-ESOP legislation.