Browse Corporate Finance

Employee Ownership and Purchase Plans

ESOP, ESOT, LESOP, ESPP, stock purchase plan, Share Incentive Plan, ShareSave, and employee-ownership terms.

Employee Ownership and Purchase Plans covers stock options, share awards, employee ownership plans, vesting, phantom equity, stock appreciation rights, dilution, and compensation accounting concepts.

Use these pages when employee or executive incentives create ownership-like exposure, compensation expense, dilution, tax-sensitive exercise decisions, or retention conditions. It sits inside Equity Compensation, so readers can move up when the broader company-finance context matters.

Use the table below to choose the narrower corporate-finance branch before applying a term to a model, board memo, financing analysis, transaction review, or risk assessment. Move into the term page when the evidence source, calculation, agreement, filing, account, or governance right matters.

What This Branch Covers

AreaUse it for
Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP)Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) is an equity-compensation concept tied to option grants, exercise economics, dilution, or employee incentives.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) is an employee ownership or share-plan concept used to align compensation with company equity value.
ESOTESOT is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.
Leveraged ESOPA Leveraged Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a financial arrangement in which an ESOP borrows funds to purchase company stock, directly from the employer.
Share Incentive PlanShare Incentive Plan is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.
SHARESAVESHARESAVE is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.
Stock Purchase PlanStock Purchase Plan is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.

What to Check

  • Award type, grant date, vesting schedule, exercise price, settlement method, and plan document.
  • Share reserve, dilution, fair-value measurement, expense recognition, tax treatment, and forfeiture conditions.
  • Board approval, employment agreement, equity plan, award agreement, and financial-statement disclosure.
  • Effect on cash compensation, ownership, EPS, control, employee incentives, and liquidity.
  • Jurisdiction and whether the question is tax, accounting, employment law, or corporate finance.

Common Mistakes

  • Treating options, restricted stock, phantom stock, SARs, and purchase plans as equivalent.
  • Ignoring vesting, forfeiture, liquidity, tax timing, and exercise risk.
  • Discussing employee tax outcomes as universal without jurisdiction and plan details.
  • Forgetting dilution and expense effects when reviewing compensation economics.

Equity-compensation content is educational and does not provide tax, legal, accounting, employment, or investment advice.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP)

Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) is an equity-compensation concept tied to option grants, exercise economics, dilution, or employee incentives.

ESOT

ESOT is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.

Leveraged ESOP

A Leveraged Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a financial arrangement in which an ESOP borrows funds to purchase company stock, directly from the employer.

Share Incentive Plan

Share Incentive Plan is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.

SHARESAVE

SHARESAVE is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.

Stock Purchase Plan

Stock Purchase Plan is an equity-compensation concept used to evaluate employee incentives, ownership, dilution, and compensation cost.

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026