Understanding ESOPs: Training to be an ESOP Professional

Offered in partnership with

The growing field of employee stock ownership plans represents an attractive career opportunity for young professional business advisors. And, as experienced professional advisors of the “baby boom” generation are retiring, professional firms are in hiring mode.  There is both an opportunity and a need, therefore, for new, well-qualified professionals to enter the field. 
 
A challenge, however, is that there have been few effective learning venues in the ESOP field – few places that young professionals can go to gain the knowledge and expertise that are needed in order to practice successfully.  Most of the professional firms in the ESOP field - whether trustees, law firms, sell-side advisors, investment bankers, valuation firms or others - are small "boutique" firms.  As such, they typically have a very limited capacity to train new employees.  This conundrum serves neither the firms that are looking for trained employees nor the (generally young) people who are interested in pursuing a career in the ESOP field. 
 
This course is intended to address this training gap that now frustrates both employers and employees in the ESOP professional fields.  Our aim is to prepare individuals to serve successfully as professionals in the ESOP field.  Because the course is aimed at professionals in a wide variety of specialized fields, it is necessarily an “ESOP fundamentals” class.  As such, it would be expected that follow-on training in a preferred area of specialization (such as financing, sell-side advising, administration, fiduciary service, etc.) will thereafter be pursued in order to qualify an individual as fully trained professional in the specialized field.
 
View Syllabus.
 
PREREQUISITES
 
Presented by the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management, this course is designed as a graduate-level program.  Thus, while the course does not require substantial expertise in ESOPs in order to enroll, an appropriate level of education and expertise in business matters will be necessary.  Specifically, enrollment will require that the student must have a four-year college degree together with at least three years of work experience (in an area such as banking, finance, accounting, law, human resources, etc.) and/or specialized training (e.g. a degree in business, finance, accounting, law, etc.) that provides the student with a solid background in business fundamentals generally.