Website claim: 6-7% estimated productivity increase following ESOP adoption.
Underlying reported figure: 5.6%-6.7%.
Source: Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, “Employee Share Ownership, Management Practices, and Labor Productivity” (March 2026).
Website claim: ESOP participants have 2.2x the retirement assets of comparable non-ESOP employees.
Underlying reported figure: 2.2 times as much in retirement plans.
Source: National Center for Employee Ownership, “Research on Employee Ownership,” summarizing NCEO analysis of U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 data.
Website claim: ASC Partners streamlined implementation period is 45 days from feasibility through implementation.
Context: This is ASC Partners’ approved implementation positioning and is not a third-party industry average. Traditional leveraged ESOP benchmarks are longer.
Industry benchmark source: National Center for Employee Ownership, “How long does it take to set up a leveraged ESOP?” NCEO reports that leveraged ESOPs typically take six to nine months, with actual timelines varying.
Industry context: NCEO states that an ESOP sale takes at least six months and usually nine to twelve months to set up.
Source: Internal Revenue Service, "Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)."
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Ownership Initiative, "Employee Ownership" tools and resources.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, ESOP fiduciary process/appraisal guidelines addressing fair market value, sponsor debt-service capacity, projections, financing terms, and transaction impact.
Source: Internal Revenue Service, "Employee Plans abusive tax transactions," explaining the general tax treatment of profits of an S corporation owned by an ESOP.
Source: Internal Revenue Service, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2003-37, describing qualifying C corporation securities, the 30% ESOP ownership requirement, three-year holding period, qualified replacement property, and the three-month-before/12-month-after replacement period.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, "Understanding Your Responsibilities," including the duty to act solely in the interests of plan participants and beneficiaries.
Source: Internal Revenue Service, "Rollovers of retirement plan and IRA distributions," explaining that eligible rollovers continue tax deferral and that taxable amounts not rolled over are included in income.
Source: Internal Revenue Service, Publication 334, "Tax Guide for Small Business," explaining that ordinary and necessary costs of operating a business are deductible under the general rules of I.R.C. § 162. The 8-28 MJB Tax Memo separately supports application of that rule to reasonable administrative and management fees under the 4ESOT structure.
Source: National Center for Employee Ownership, "Warrants in ESOP Transactions," Chapter 8 of Selling to an ESOP and Financing the Deal, 12th Ed., addressing warrants used in leveraged ESOP financing structures.
Source: Internal Revenue Service, Employee Stock Ownership Plan Listing of Required Modifications and Information Package (ESOP LRM), section 6, “Valuation, Independent Appraiser, and Allocation of Earnings,” providing that plan assets are valued at least once a year and employer stock is valued by an independent appraiser.
Source: Internal Revenue Service, Rev. Proc. 2004-14, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2004-7, addressing ESOP distribution requirements, employer-stock distributions, cash distributions for S corporation ESOPs, and the fair-value put option for employer securities that are not readily tradable.
Source: The ESOP Association, “How to Establish an ESOP,” section “Repurchase Liability Studies.” Explains the repurchase obligation of privately held ESOP companies, factors affecting its growth over time, the use of repurchase-liability studies to project the obligation, and planning methods for meeting future cash requirements.
Source: Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, WRMarketplace No. 15-25, “Employee Stock Ownership Plans – Tax Considerations & Planning for Repurchases” (July 9, 2015), written by Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Supports the use of corporate-owned life insurance death proceeds and accessible cash value as potential sources of liquidity for ESOP repurchase obligations, subject to applicable tax and plan considerations.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, ERISA Advisory Council, "Report of the Working Group on Prudent Investment Process" (2006), addressing use of an Investment Policy Statement as a documented fiduciary-governance practice for investment authority, strategy, liquidity, risk, and oversight.