Is Esop A Retirement Plan? 
An ESOP is a retirement plan , indeed , especially for the owner . AN ESOP is a very creative way for an owner to buy himself/herself out of the company , using borrowed money that the company has to pay back . And the payback is tax deductible . For the employees , the ESOP stands for Employee Stock Ownership Plan and the stock in an ESOP is qualified money , meaning it grows tax deferred and is tax upon liquidation . WHen an employee leaves the company , he/she can roll over the ESOP money into an individual IRA 