[mkbosmans]

Nothing requires an ESOP to skip on a separate retirement fund for employees and expect them to retire from their share of the investment.

In the contrary, I expect the owners of an ESOP are very much in favor of having a well managed separate employee retirement fund. More so than in a publicly owned company.

But of course you are right that the risks factors of losing your income and losing your investment are pretty much 100% correlated for an ESOP. Some investment diversification is always a good idea.