Question: Do I have access to the money from my Employee Stock Ownership Plan?
I don't understand how it works and was curious to know if or how can I get access to the company's Stock account to my Employee stock Ownership Plan.
The certificate states I have a total of: $92,750.83
Thanks
Answer:
You most likely cannot access it until you retire or leave the company.
I highly doubt that you've accidentally saved almost $100k, while being entirely cluelss about the process. Check with your companys HR department.
If you purchased the stock yourself, you own it. If it was given to you via the company you most likely have to vest before you have access. You most likely have access to a portion but not 100%.
For example, If you were awarded $10,000 of ESOP this year, after one year you may have 20%, after two years, 40% etc.
There most likely are 2 amounts reflected on your account. Total amount and vested amount.
Generally an ESOP is another name for an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Usually an employee in an Employee Stock Purchase Plan agrees to have a certain percentage of their income withheld each month (2%-10%) to purchase company stocks semi-annually.
The company will sell employees the stock at a discount of usually 15% off the cheapest price of either the price on the day the period started or the day the period ended. The stock certificate is usually either sent to the employee or is held in a brokerage firm (E-Trade, Schwab, etc.) under the employees name.
At anytime after that, the employee can sell the stocks and if immediately sold, will be immediately taxed at the 15% increase (employer contribution) in value usually as normal income.
If the stock is held long enough, the 15% is usually taxed as capital gains if a profit is made.
There are also employee stock option plans (plans that allows an employee to purchased a certain number of stocks at a designated strike price) but those are generally not referred to as an ESOP.
Contact your Human Resources department to determine where the stocks are held and how you can get access to them.