Blue Ridge ESOP Associates Industry News

Managing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) involves much oversight. As a Plan Sponsor reviewing the reports provided by your Third Party Administrator (TPA) is very important. In this article, we will explain the elements plan sponsors should review when analyzing the various reports sent by your TPA to ensure compliance and accuracy of the plan administration.

It is common for an ESOP to be established with a leveraged stock purchase from the selling shareholder(s).  When a leveraged ESOP is established, the shares acquired initially are not allocated to participants. Those shares initially sit in a suspense account.  Then as the company makes contributions to the ESOP, the ESOP uses those contributions to make a payment on the loan between the company and the ESOP. When that occurs, a portion of the shares in the suspense account are released and allocated to eligible participants’ accounts based on the provisions in your plan document.