ESOP
Your Benefits
An Employee Owned Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a qualified, defined contribution employee benefit plan that is required to invest primarily in employer securities with the investments growing tax-free. An ESOP allows employees to share in the ownership of the company and rewards them with retirement benefits that are tied directly to company performance, which can lead to profitability through higher employee morale and productivity.
Your Options
The trustee of an ESOP is responsible for making sure that the plan is operated for the “exclusive benefit of the plan participants and their beneficiaries”. First Bankers Trust Services has extensive experience in the ESOP arena. Some of the service options we provide to our clients are:
* Buying and selling of plan assets
* Ensuring that the ESOP loan terms are reasonable and coordinating the scheduled debt service payments
* Hiring the plan advisors and evaluating their opinions
* Voting and/or accepting direction to vote shares of company stock for shareholder meetings
* Monitoring the ESOP’s compliance with the plan and loan documents, trusts, and all applicable laws and regulations
* Evaluating ESOP transactions independently
* Accepting employer contributions and collecting income on plan assets
* Completing participant distributions and providing all the required tax reporting documents to retirees and terminated employees
* Providing statements to all necessary parties in a timely matter
Our Services
We serve as ESOP trustee nationwide and pride ourselves on the quality of client service that we provide. We can serve you in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the company. The company decides on how First Bankers Trust Services can serve:
Directed Trustee – The Plan Administrator makes the decisions and directs First Bankers Trust Services.
Independent Trustee – First Bankers Trust Services will make and carry out the decisions made to serve the ESOP and the plan participants.
Custodian – First Bankers Trust Services will hold the assets and make distributions as directed by the company.