Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)

An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) is a retirement plan in which the company contributes its stock to the plan for the benefit of the company’s employees. With an ESOP, you never buy or hold the stock directly. This type of plan should not be confused with employee stock options plans, which are not retirement plans. Instead, employee stock options plans give the employee the right to buy their company’s stock at a set price within a certain period of time.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, not the Securities and Exchange Commission, oversees ESOPs. If you have a question about your ESOPs, please contact:

U.S. Department of Labor
Employee Benefits Security Administration
Division of Technical Assistance and Inquiries
200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room N5625
Washington, D.C. 20210
Toll-Free: 1-866-444-EBSA (3272)
Phone: (202) 219-8776

If you have a complaint about your plan, you can learn the procedures for filing a claim on the EBSA’s website. For help in finding a lawyer who specializes in pension matters, you can visit the website of the National Pension Lawyers Network. You can find information about pensions from the EBSA’s home page.

For more information about ESOPs, take a look at the website of The National Center for Employee Ownership.