Summary
A staggering number of private-company owners will be looking for liquidity over the next 10 to 15 years. As a result, ESOPs will begin to show up on the radar screens of many of these owners and their professional advisers. Of course, for a variety of reasons, many of these firms will not be good candidates for an ESOP. Still, experts estimate that in the next few years there will be 150,000 to 300,000 businesses that baby boom owners may want to liquidate and that are very well-suited for the ESOP-based exit strategy.