After a Mom missed out on $1 million, her son found a way to help employees buy cheap stock.
Employee stock ownership has the potential to help millions of workers who face limited wage growth have difficulty saving and lose out on the chance to participate in their company’s equity plan and generate life-changing sums of money.
Broadening access to equity and reducing financial risk is crucial to connecting more individuals, particularly lower-income earners, with the wealth-building power of the equities markets.
Aaron Shapiro is the founder of a company called Carver Edison, which he created after realizing that his mother lost out on more than $1 million in stock because she didn’t understand her employee stock purchase plan and wouldn’t have been able to afford payroll deductions.
Cashless Participation™ enables employees to own 50-150% more company stock through their employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), without shrinking their paycheck.
Aaron explains: “We came up with a combined financial and technology solution to help America’s working-class get ahead called Cashless Participation.”
“Essentially we step in and allow employees to maximize their ESPP contribution with limited payroll deductions on their part. Participating employees will own more shares than they otherwise would have been able to afford and this enhances the effectiveness of the overall equity programme, as it generates capital for the company, increases participation and delivers value for shareholders.”
He added: “Making equity ownership available to companies of all sizes opens us a greater segment of the US and global markets and means that many more families can benefit and help build sustainable wealth for their future.”
Global Shares has recently announced a new partnership with Carver Edison to offer Cashless Participation™ patented technology to its clients. It means employees at public companies can acquire significantly more stock through their Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPP), with limited payroll deductions.
The new partnership also includes a solution for employee communications and financial education, called Carbon:
Carbon™ is the world’s first platform that allows client companies to design, schedule and launch education campaigns for their global stock plans (including ESPPs, RSUs and options). Carbon streamlines and simplifies access to critical information so that these benefits can be understood and supported with ease. Educational content is available in 10 different languages across more than 100 countries.
Hugh Curran, Managing Director Global Shares North America said:
“Global Shares is a fintech leader in the employee stock ownership space, simplifying the management of equity plans for companies and making life easy for their employees. We’re delighted to offer Carver Edison’s Cashless Participation to our clients and give employees the opportunity to invest more in the stock of the companies where they work. There are multiple advantages to this approach. Our clients get to raise capital, plan participation rates increase and employees get to share in the wealth created by the success of all their hard work”
Tim Houstoun, CEO of Global Shares said:
“Employee ownership is on the rise as a proven way for companies to engage their workforce, align the interests of employees and shareholders, as well as facilitate the distribution of wealth to create a fairer society. Cashless Participation is a superb concept and technical solution to assist employees to increase their shareholding and generate future wealth”.
He added: “In the current environment and ‘new world of work’ employee ownership is also an excellent way to assist companies to retain their winning staff, build trust around shared goals, and unite to overcome the economic turbulence together.”
“Global Shares’ growing client base includes the largest public company and largest private company in the world. We look forward to rolling out Carver Edison’s impressive financial technology to our clients and their employees in the US and beyond”.
Please Note: This publication contains general information only and J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions is not, through this article, issuing any advice, be it legal, financial, tax-related, business-related, professional or other. J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions’ Insights is not a substitute for professional advice and should not be used as such. J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions does not assume any liability for reliance on the information provided herein.
