The demise of stock options continues, according to recently filed information with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The slide in stock options began in 2003 and continued to today. While a large percentage of companies use stock options as a component of their long-term...

Investors and the business media may be vexed about rich executive pay plans, but "golden parachute" severance packages stir particular outrage. Too often, it seems, this departure pay rewards failure, is based on inflated numbers, and loses "say on parachute" investor votes. How can your board...

There has been much media attention on severance payments, often reported as golden parachute payments, to CEOs and other high-level executives who have resigned, retired or been terminated at companies that have underperformed. This public concern over excessive severance payments to executives...

Cash-based long-term incentive (“LTI”) plans have long been an alternative to equity based LTI plans. Their use has trailed off in recent years, but still represents a signfi cant part of many LTI plans. Who uses these types of plans, and why and how to they differ from equity-based LTI plans?

Shareholders of publicly traded companies are increasingly aware of executive compensation issues and are focused on the relationship between pay and performance. Indeed, with say on pay implemented in 2011 (with most of the say-on-pay votes being annual), pay for performance has become a core...

In order to investigate what (and how much) is being reported in annual proxy statements about executive pay packages and how incentive pay is designed, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.'s Human Resources & Compensation Consulting Practice (formerly James F. Reda & Associates a Division of Gallagher...

With expanding focus on qualitative review factors, performance goal rigor will likely become a key area of attention for institutional investors and proxy advisory firms. Public companies should prepare for heightened scrutiny on the appropriateness of selected metrics and difficulty of...

There are several ways to compare severance packages between private companies including emerging pre-IPO companies, and public companies. While public companies routinely provide severance protection for their senior executives, private companies are lagging in arranging this protection. It is...