Due to a variety of reasons, including new accounting rules, response to investor concerns and a desire to strengthen the link between pay and performance, many companies are shifting their emphasis in executive long-term incentive programs from stock options to performance shares. A major cause...

Since the inception of its widespread use in 1992, the job of the compensation committee has become increasingly more complex. The compensation committee has a prominent board role. In reality, the decisions and actions of the compensation committee may make the difference between mediocre and...

With shareholder (and election year) outrage over top executive pay at a new peak, board compensation committees must put increasing faith in the numbers and advice they receive from executive pay consultants. Yet research finds that many of the big compensation consulting firms suffer from the...

The effect of a stock buyback on an executive incentive program will depend on a variety of factors and is specific to each company and their unique incentive program design. Stock buybacks, which have increased in prevalence following the Tax Cuts and Job Act (2017), continue to be a...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Reform” or “Act”) contains the most significant changes to the US Tax Code in more than thirty years. The biggest change for executive compensation is that public companies will not be able to deduct performance-based compensation. This article details...

Mid-market companies ($500 Million to $5 Billion in size) continue to go through incentive plan design changes. These changes are mainly in the long-term incentive plan (LTI) plan design, but our review included short-term incentive (STI) plan design, as well. This article is based on a review...

Public company compensation levels and programs are a key factor in determining compensation levels in private companies. It is important that companies devise and follow a compensation philosophy as part of their compensation program, which includes public company benchmarks. Does this...

Change-in-control ("CIC") severance arrangements - arising from mergers, acquisitions, and other business combinations - have become increasingly popular among executives in particular and employees in general. CIC arrangements can have a significant financial impact on employees, as well as...

Is this happening at your company: Executives exercising their stock option, liquidating their position, and not holding the underlying stock? If so, here is some counsel on setting stock ownership guidelines