Patent ID: 11922498
Assignee: CARVER EDISON, INC.
Field: IT methods for management (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A method of increasing the number of shares purchased under an employee stock purchase plan with limited employee capital contributions, comprising the steps of: selecting, by each of a plurality of employees of an employer, a monetary contribution amount for contribution to the employee stock purchase plan, the selected monetary contribution amount being less than or equal to a maximum allowable contribution under limits of the employee stock purchase plan; aggregating, via a transaction module executable by a processor residing on a remote server operated by a third party, each of the plurality of employees into one of a plurality of virtual containers each having a distinct identification number assigned thereto based on the selected monetary contribution amount; providing, via a monetary contribution module executable by the remote server processor, by the third party on behalf of each of the plurality of employees, a supplemental monetary contribution having a principal equal to one of a difference between the selected monetary contribution amount by each employee and the maximum allowable contribution under the employee stock purchase plan during the offering period, or a lesser principal amount as may be elected or agreed to by the employee up to the maximum allowable contribution under the limits of the employee stock purchase plan; transmitting the supplemental monetary contribution to the employer or each employee directly on behalf of a financial or ledger account funded or credited with the selected monetary contribution or the equivalent value of shares which when sold would fund an exercise price amount of each employee during the offering period, each financial or ledger account used to purchase shares of employer stock via the employee stock purchase plan at the end of the offering period; disbursing to a transfer agent, plan administrator or each employee directly, via a share disbursement module executable by the remote server processor, instructions to issue, deliver or sell a number of shares of employer stock required to reimburse the supplemental monetary contribution by the third party, fund the exercise price of an option or, in the event of a sale of an option that on the purchase date is in-the-money, to allow the third party to deliver shares of employer stock to a counterparty upon the counterparty's exercise of the option or executing such transactions directly on behalf of the employee; disbursing, via the share disbursement module, to the third party from the employer or employee, the required number of shares of employer stock, or an equivalent amount of cash; disbursing, via the share disbursement module, to each of the plurality of employees from the employer, a number of shares of employer stock or cash equal to a difference between the number of shares of employer stock acquired using an aggregate of the selected monetary contribution and the supplemental monetary contribution, and the number of shares of employer stock disbursed to the third party from the employer in repayment of the supplemental monetary contribution remaining after using a portion of the shares to fund the exercise price, if applicable; delivering, via the transaction module, by the third party the acquired shares of employer stock for sale on the open market or otherwise; and returning, by the third party to the financial or ledger account of each of the plurality of employees, proceeds from the sale of the shares of employer stock to the counterparty or returning employer shares, wherein the proceeds and value of employer shares are equivalent to the value of employer shares from the employee stock purchase plan that the employee would have received if the employee had initially contributed an amount equal to a sum of the selected monetary contribution and the supplemental monetary contribution, minus the repayment amount related to the supplemental monetary contribution or use of shares to fund the exercise price.