I was a featured speaker at an ESOP company’s company-wide meeting recently. This company’s executive team wanted employees to be as excited about ESOP ownership as they are. Unfortunately, this year’s statement doesn’t show actual stock additions. For a variety of technical reasons, it will show cash only. Our presentation for this new ESOP outlined the company’s strategy for ownership, used pictures about what is going to happen for clarity and tapped into the excitement of ownership. For most companies – the benefits of establishing the ESOP go way beyond the information on a participant’s the statement in any given year. Just because the statement reflects cash at this time doesn’t mean you can’t start getting the motivational benefits of shared ownership.