Tag: executive compensation

Is Section 162(m) just “a gnat on an elephant”?

by Cydney Posner According to an interesting article, “The Executive Pay Cap That Backfired,” by Allen Sloan, published in ProPublica on February 12, not only did tax code Section 162(m) not achieve its intended goal, it actually backfired – or at least led to a counter-intuitive result.  But it did […]

Do stock options affect consumer safety?

by Cydney Posner Yes, according to a new study, “Throwing Caution to the Wind: The Effect of C.E.O. Stock Option Pay on the Incidence of Product Safety Problems,”  from the University of Notre Dame, as reported in this NYT column by Gretchen Morgenson.   The study showed a correlation between […]

Executive compensation — a trigger for hedge fund activism?

by Cydney Posner Is executive pay becoming a hot button issue for activist hedge funds? While executive pay has long been under scrutiny from standard-issue corporate governance activists, such as union pension funds, the interest of some hedge fund activists in executive compensation issues has the potential to introduce a […]

With two dissents, SEC proposes pay-for-performance disclosure rules

by Cydney Posner This morning, by a three to two margin, the SEC voted to propose rules requiring companies to disclose executive pay for performance. The proposal comes five years after passage of Dodd-Frank, which imposed the obligation on the SEC.  Currently, many companies voluntarily provide information that could fit […]

Efforts to reform executive compensation follow the law of unintended consequences

by Cydney Posner Remember how “say on pay” was supposed to put the lid on soaring executive pay? And just how has that turned out? According to a study conducted by ISS affiliates, (reported in Compliance Week ) the average compensation package for CEOs in the U.S. rose nearly 13 […]

Survey: institutional investors want return of 25-page proxy statements

by Cydney Posner Let’s reconsider: is it really necessary – or even useful – to have a proxy statement for an ordinary annual meeting that exceeds 100 pages in length?  Does responsibility for bloated proxy statements lie with legislators and regulators or must we practitioners (and may I include comp […]

Will the new revenue recognition standard wreak havoc on existing executive compensation arrangements?

by Cydney Posner Compliance Week reports on the “tectonic shift” anticipated to result from implementation of FASB’s new revenue recognition standard and the impact of that shift on executive pay. The new standard is scheduled to go into effect at the beginning of 2017; however, companies that include revenue goals […]

Are we aligning pay to the wrong performance metrics?

by Cydney Posner As discussed in this article in Compliance Week, this report, “The Alignment Gap Between Creating Value, Performance Measurement, and Long-Term Incentive Design,” by Organizational Capital Partners and the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute, contends that most companies are using the wrong metrics to align executive pay with performance.  Rather […]