Trade Publication Article

Ask the Experts

Gallop, Katie, Berishaj, Katrina L

2024

Overview

While some states, such as New Jersey, provide an exemption so that issuers do not have to register their securities in the state when offering them through an ESPP, others may require that issuers take certain steps before taking advantage of an exemption. Because employers must extend the option to participate in an ESPP to all of their employees, this can pose a challenge for employers with out-of-state employees. New York General Business Law Section 359-F(2)(e) exempts securities offered in connection with an \"employees' stock purchase, savings, pension, profit-sharing or similar benefit plan\" from registration in New York state, provided that the issuer files an application with the attorney general and that the attorney general grants an exemption. Katrina L. Berishaj, managing counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP, and co-chair of the firm's fiduciary governance practice, advises financial services clients, including banks, trust companies, broker-dealers, investment advisers, insurance companies and institutional investors, on issues arising under the fiduciary and prohibited transaction rules of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code.

• Publisher: Aspen Publishers, Inc
• Subject: Attorneys general / Compensation plans / Employers / Fair market value / Institutional investments / Internal Revenue Code / Investors / Registration / Regulation D / Securities offerings / Securities regulations / State employees