2010 February 01 | Grahall, LLC

Expert Perspective by Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

Executives and boards might have thought that having made some minor changes to their executive pay practices that they could breathe a sigh of relief and put a year of brutal questioning from media, the public and legislators behind them. Some of those publicly criticized executives and boards have even made some New Years’ Resolutions to “trim some fat” off the executive compensation rolls, to “help others” though charitable donations and to “improve” their organizations’ risk management policies with callbacks. But a few others should have added one last resolution: “quit procrastinating” and finally establish thoughtful and thorough succession plans and policies for the top positions, particularly the CEO.

Two recent articles starkly depict the issues associated with a failure to plan for succession.
Continue reading “If it’s not one thing…” »

Filed under: Expert Perspective

Tags: succession planning

Hewitt Associates Announces Partial Spin-Off of Its Executive Compensation Consulting Business in North America

Published in Trading Markets February 1, 2010

Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing today announced it has closed on a partial divestiture of its Executive Compensation Consulting business in North America. Under the agreement, a select number of Hewitt principals and consultants will be leaving Hewitt to form Meridian Partners LLC, which will operate as an independent executive compensation consulting firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Filed under: Newsfeeds

Tags: Compensation Consultant, conflict of interest

The Renewed Focus On Compensation Committees: A Push For True Independence

Published in Metro Corp Counsel February 1, 2010 by David E. Rubinsky and Jason R. Ertel

In the wake of the recent market turmoil, there has been much finger pointing as politicians, the media, business leaders, and the general public have tried to determine a root cause for the greatest financial crisis in recent memory. As part of the collective public discussion on the economic events that have transpired over the past two years, there has been much ado about executive compensation practices, which have been perceived by many as a primary contributor to the predicament in which many financial institutions and other troubled companies have found themselves.

Filed under: Newsfeeds

Tags: Board of Directors Governance, compensation committees

Section 409A Plan Document Correction Program

Published in Metro Corp Counsel February 1, 2010

On January 5, 2010, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2010-6 (the “Notice”), which provides methods that employers can use to voluntarily correct plan document failures under Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The Notice also provides clarification of the correction of certain operational failures. This article will focus on the correction of Section 409A plan document failures.

Filed under: Newsfeeds

Tags: 409A

Bank bosses get pay boost on the sly

Published in Investment News February 1, 2010 by Aaron Elstein

Hoping to mute public outrage over huge Wall Street bonuses, the big banks are making a show of paying employees with more restricted stock, which can’t be touched for years, and less cash.

Much less well-known is this: Many of the banks are paying dividends on those shares—even though the employees don’t actually own them yet.