Stealth Compensation Via Retirement Benefits

Stealth Compensation Via Retirement Benefits

Author: Lucian A. Bebchuk

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13:

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This Article analyzes an important form of stealth compensation provided to managers of public companies. We show how boards have been able to camouflage large amounts of executive compensation through the use of retirement benefits and payments. Our study illustrates the significant role that camouflage and stealth compensation play in the design of compensation arrangements. It also highlights the importance of having information about compensation arrangements not only publicly available but also communicated in a way that is transparent and accessible to outsiders. To improve the transparency of executives' retirement payments and benefits, we propose several changes in current disclosure requirements. Among other things, firms should be required to report to investors each year the dollar value of all the retirement benefits to which their executives become entitled. For example, firms should disclose to investors the annual buildup in the actuarial value of executives' retirement plans, as well as the tax savings reaped by executives at the company's expense through the use of deferred compensation arrangements. Firms should also disclose to investors each year the present value of all the retirement benefits their top executives have accumulated.


Stealth Compensation Via Retirement Benefits

Stealth Compensation Via Retirement Benefits

Author: Lucian A. Bebchuk

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 31

ISBN-13:

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"This paper analyzes an important form of?stealth compensation? provided to managers of public companies. We show how boards have been able to camouflage large amount of executive compensation through the use of retirement benefits and payments. Our study highlights the significant role that camouflage and stealth compensation play in the design of compensation arrangements. Our study also highlights the importance of having information about compensation arrangements not only publicly available but also communicated in a way that is transparent and accessible to outsiders. We propose requiring public companies to place a monetary value on all retirement benefits to which their executives become entitled. In particular, firms should disclose to investors the annual buildup in the monetary value of executives' retirement benefits, including the value of tax savings reaped by executives at the company's expense"--John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business web site.


The WorldatWork Handbook of Compensation, Benefits and Total Rewards

The WorldatWork Handbook of Compensation, Benefits and Total Rewards

Author: WorldatWork

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-03-05

Total Pages: 864

ISBN-13: 1119104335

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Praise for The WorldatWork Handbook of Compensation, Benefits & Total Rewards This is the definitive guide to compensation and benefits for modern HR professionals who must attract, motivate, and retain quality employees. Technical enough for specialists but broad in scope for generalists, this well-rounded resource belongs on the desk of every recruiter and HR executive. An indispensable tool for understanding and implementing the total rewards concept, the WorldatWork Handbook of Compensation, Benefits, and Total Rewards is the key to designing compensation practices that ensure organizational success. Coverage includes: Why the total rewards strategy works Developing the components of a total rewards program Common ways a total rewards program can go wrong Designing and implementing a total rewards program Communicating the total rewards vision Developing a compensation philosophy and package FLSA and other laws that affect compensation Determining and setting competitive salary levels And much more


Predictable and Avoidable

Predictable and Avoidable

Author: Ivo Pezzuto

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 599

ISBN-13: 1317076265

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Much has been said and written about the 'financial tsunami' and subsequent economic dislocation that occurred in the opening decade of the 21st Century. Professor Ivo Pezzuto is described by business scholars as an expert on the global financial crisis. He has lectured about it at conferences and seminars; written some of the most read and quoted papers; contributed to what is considered the most authoritative book on the subject; and to one of the best known US-based blogs dealing with it. In Predictable and Avoidable, Dr Pezzuto offers business school students; academics; and industry experts in the fields of finance, risk management, audit, corporate governance, economics, and regulation, a truly independent and unbiased analysis of the financial crises starting in 2007 and one of the first fully considered expositions of the financial, governance and regulatory reforms needed for the future. Augmented with personal interviews involving selected global thought leaders and industry experts, the author's narrative focuses on the technical issues that led to the global crisis, but also addresses the human, cultural, and ethical aspects of the events from both sociological and managerial perspectives. The book exposes the root causes and contributes significantly to the debate about the change needed in the banking and finance industries and to supervisory frameworks and regulatory mechanisms. This analysis enables readers to understand that the crisis we have seen was predictable and should have been avoidable, and that a recurrence can be avoided, if lessons are learned and the right action taken.


Perspectives on Corporate Governance

Perspectives on Corporate Governance

Author: F. Scott Kieff

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-07-30

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1139490559

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The events that began with the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and Adelphia and continued into the financial crisis of 2008 teach us an important lesson: corporate governance matters. Although it is widely acknowledged that good corporate governance is a linchpin of good corporate performance, how can one improve corporate governance and its impact on corporate and overall economic performance. This book offers a diverse and forward-looking set of approaches from experts, covering the major areas of corporate governance reform and analyzing the full range of issues and concerns. Written to be both theoretically rigorous and grounded in the real world, the book is well suited for practicing lawyers, managers, lawmakers, and analysts, as well as academics conducting research or teaching a wide range of courses in law schools, business schools, and economics departments.


Pay Without Performance

Pay Without Performance

Author: Lucian A. Bebchuk

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780674020634

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The company is under-performing, its share price is trailing, and the CEO gets...a multi-million-dollar raise. This story is familiar, for good reason: as this book clearly demonstrates, structural flaws in corporate governance have produced widespread distortions in executive pay. Pay without Performance presents a disconcerting portrait of managers' influence over their own pay--and of a governance system that must fundamentally change if firms are to be managed in the interest of shareholders. Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried demonstrate that corporate boards have persistently failed to negotiate at arm's length with the executives they are meant to oversee. They give a richly detailed account of how pay practices--from option plans to retirement benefits--have decoupled compensation from performance and have camouflaged both the amount and performance-insensitivity of pay. Executives' unwonted influence over their compensation has hurt shareholders by increasing pay levels and, even more importantly, by leading to practices that dilute and distort managers' incentives. This book identifies basic problems with our current reliance on boards as guardians of shareholder interests. And the solution, the authors argue, is not merely to make these boards more independent of executives as recent reforms attempt to do. Rather, boards should also be made more dependent on shareholders by eliminating the arrangements that entrench directors and insulate them from their shareholders. A powerful critique of executive compensation and corporate governance, Pay without Performance points the way to restoring corporate integrity and improving corporate performance.