"While many owners of privately held businesses ... want to encourage key employees to 'think like shareholders,' they are reluctant to (or simply cannot) grant true equity interests to key employees.... [T]he answer for those privately held businesses that do offer an LTIP is a 'phantom' or 'synthetic' equity arrangement such as a Phantom Stock or Stock Appreciation Rights Plan. While each of these plan structures has certain advantages in specific situations, EBS has found the Performance Units Plan (PUP) format to be most flexible and effective in encouraging key employees to think and act like shareholders."  MORE >>