EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP

An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is an employee benefit plan that empowers each of our team members to become business owners by issuing stock in our company. ESOP benefits are easy to measure because it helps promote growth and helps attract high-caliber employees to the Liberty team.

Unlike a 401(k) retirement plan, as a member of an ESOP, you earn shares of the company stock just for being an employee! In fact, ESOPs outperform 401(K) plans by 19%, making them a preferred retirement option.

Since you’re not required to contribute any of your own money to the ESOP plan, this is one of the safest and most conservative options available to help you plan for retirement.

Each ESOP company grows at different rates, and its shares are worth different amounts. Suppose you remain employed with Liberty for ten years. During this time, you will have met your vesting period of six years, which means you are eligible for 100% of your ESOP stock.

As an employee-owner with Liberty, you are helping us meet our mission goals by serving military families the best way we know how. We are sustaining a company legacy for new generations of military families and creating an innovative place to work and grow.

Grow your long-term wealth simply by being an employee with Liberty!

Are you interested in learning more about the benefits of an ESOP? Check out this video!

The National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO)has spent years researching what happens when a company becomes an ESOP. It turns out that employee ownership + participative management results in an ownership culture. Participative management helps build commitment and develop initiatives to work together as a team. As an employee-owned company, each of our Team Members has a vested stake in seeing our mission succeed.

Ownership culture blends well into our Core Value of Empowerment because it ensures that we understand that the work we do matters. When Liberty is profitable, and we meet our mission goals, our ESOP shares rise. Higher ESOP shares mean more money in your pocket when it’s time to retire.

Research from the NCEO also shows that job satisfaction and employee engagement are driven by a meaningful ownership stake and active participation in the decision-making process. Being part of an ESOP organization gives you access to both.

So how does that translate to growth? It turns out that when employees are more satisfied with their jobs, there’s less turnover. Greater employee retention helps companies grow faster. ESOP companies, just like Liberty, grow an average of 8% to 11% per year faster than they would have been expected to grow. In fact, NCEO research shows that ESOP companies have employment growth rates of 3.8% per year higher than non-ESOP companies.

That’s not all. Studies also show that employee ownership results in fewer layoffs since each employee is an integral part of the company’s success. In short, the better Liberty performs at meeting our missions, the more valuable your shares in the ESOP become.

For more information, please visit the National Center for Employee Ownership.

As you accumulate seniority at Liberty, you acquire an increasing right to the shares in your account. This process is called vesting. In our ESOP plan, eligible Team Members are vested after six years.

When it’s time for you to retire or leave Liberty, the company must buy back its stock from you at its fair market value. That means the more value the stock has, the more money your shares are worth. When you elect to take your distribution, the funds are taxed as regular income.

Please visit the National Center for Employee Ownership's resource page for more about how being part of an ESOP can help you save on taxes.