Administration | March 20th, 2019 ESOPs As a Retirement, and Succession, Plan ESOPs can help employees amass greater retirement benefits, as well as help business owners keep control in planning for the...
Compliance | December 17th, 2018 Stock-Drop Lawsuit Targeting IBM Revived and Remanded An appellate court has taken the rare step of overturning a successful motion to dismiss a stock drop lawsuit targeting...
Data and Research | December 6th, 2018 Workers in ESOPs Have Double the Retirement Savings ESOP participants have an average retirement balance of $170,326, more than twice the $80,339 that other workers have saved
Data and Research | October 31st, 2018 Companies With ESOPs Report Advantages for Business In addition, 55% of responding companies contributed to their ESOPs an amount equivalent to 11% or more of participants’ pay—far...
Compliance | October 8th, 2018 Members of Congress Ask Trump to Protect ESOPs In a letter, members of Congress accuse the DOL of “regulation through litigation” and ask that clear guidance regarding valuation...
Compliance | October 4th, 2018 Reliance Trust Settles DOL Lawsuit Over ESOP Valuation The lawsuit alleged that employee stock ownership plan participants overpaid for company stock.
Compliance | September 25th, 2018 Divisions Remain in Courts Regarding the Burden of Proof A case set to go to the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision about who bears the burden of proof...
Compliance | August 15th, 2018 Pro-ESOP Bill Signed Into Law Among other things, the Main Street Employee Ownership Act focuses on increasing the role of the Small Business Administration (SBA)...
Compliance | July 26th, 2018 Plaintiffs’ Prudence Claims Snapped in General Cable Stock Drop Suit In dismissing the stock drop challenge, the judge offers an illuminating review of what is required by ERISA’s duty of...
Compliance | July 26th, 2018 ‘Prudence’ and ‘Loyalty’ Feature in Second Rejection of Wells Fargo Stock Drop Suit While they won the day, defendants unsuccessfully argued that the Dudenhoeffer pleading standards should be applied not only to prudence claims, but...
Compliance | July 17th, 2018 Rainbow ESOP Lawsuit Easily Clears Early Motions The text of the decision includes lengthy discussion of all 14 counts of ERISA fiduciary breaches, and why each is...
Compliance | July 9th, 2018 Stock Drop Lawsuit Tied to Allergan-Actavis Acquisition Dismissed Ruling in favor of a detailed motion to dismiss filed by defendants, the court cites a long list of precedent-setting...
Compliance | July 2nd, 2018 Cactus Feeders ESOP Fiduciaries Agree to Sizable DOL Settlement Lubbock National Bank, the ESOP’s trustee, has also agreed to take steps that will ensure it fulfills its fiduciary obligations...
Compliance | May 11th, 2018 Bill Would Encourage Small Businesses to Create ESOPs The bill would amend Section 7(a) of the Small Business Act, expanding loans to small business employers for the purpose...
Compliance | May 9th, 2018 ESOP Fiduciaries to Pay More Than $2 Million to Settle DOL Lawsuit The Department of Labor sued Sonnax Industries, company officers and ESOP fiduciaries Tommy Harmon and Frederick Fritz, and Illinois-based First...
Compliance | April 25th, 2018 Judge Rules on DOL ESOP Challenge with Mixed Results The mixed decision comes after DOL moved for summary judgement; the defendants responded by moving to exclude key testimony from...
Benefits | March 16th, 2018 Owners and Employees Alike Can Benefit from ESOPs A new website launched by Principal seeks to help business owners and their advisers talk through the possibilities of creating...
Compliance | March 16th, 2018 Two ESOP Bills Would Promote Employee Ownership Both, one in the House and one in the Senate, have bipartisan support
Compliance | January 9th, 2018 6th Circuit Rules for Eaton Corp. in ESOP Suit The appellate court agreed with a lower court that plaintiffs did not meet pleading standards set forth in the Supreme...
Compliance | November 20th, 2017 DOL Reaches Triple Settlement With First Bankers Trust The DOL alleged in all three cases that the firm approved transactions without undertaking the due diligence required of an...