Say on pay is inevitable, but it’s difficult for stock plan managers to know exactly what that means to them. Because it’s practically unheard of for the equity compensation team to be on the decision-making side of executive compensation, it may feel easy to dismiss say on pay as an issue that can be overlooked.
However, availing yourself as a knowledgeable resource within your company elevates you as a subject matter expert. Being a part of the conversation when it comes to new policies or grant practices always helps ensure that the solutions coming down your pipeline are both effective and manageable. In that spirit, these are my top three action items for stock plan managers to prepare for say on pay:
Know what shareholders; hot buttons are for share-based compensation, including what features and provisions are likely to be unacceptable and those that increase the likelihood of acceptance. Take a good look at your company’s executive equity compensation to see how outstanding grants rate. Here are a few:
Pay for Performance – A significant majority of the bad press generated over executive compensation focuses on the disparity between executive compensation pay-outs and the relative success of the company during the same period. Pay for performance is more than simply slapping a performance condition on a grant, especially if the performance measures are not adequate to inspire long-term success. This year, we have a fantastic pre-conference program dedicated to performance awards, the Practical Guide to Performance-Based Awards. If you’re looking for ways to beef up your knowledge on performance awards, this is the program for you!
Dividend Payments – Shareholders generally don’t want to see executive compensation that pays out dividends or DERs on unvested shares. This follows right in line with pay for performance; shareholders don’t want to see that an executive will be eligible for dividends on unearned shares.
Long-term Focus – One of the hottest buttons for shareholders is whether or not executive compensation has a long-term focus. For equity compensation, this includes issues like minimum vesting periods (e.g.; at least 3 years, but preferably 5 years) and holding requirements. Increasing the length of time executives must wait before they can cash out their company shares reduces the temptation executives may feel to take excessive risks. Take a close look at your executives’ equity compensation and create a list of features or provisions that demonstrate a long-term focus.
Double-trigger – When it comes to change in control provisions in your grant agreements, shareholders (and potential acquiring companies) absolutely want to see a double-trigger for acceleration of vesting in the event of a change in control. If you haven’t already, take a close look at your grant agreements to see what your company’s change-in-control provisions look like.
Clawback Provisions – depending on how the House and Senate reconcile their final versions of their bills, clawback provisions could be required for listed companies. Shareholders generally like to see that clawbacks are not only in place, but also enforceable. Typically, clawback provisions are found in employment contracts, so have a conversation with your legal team to find out what your company’s current practice is and if that will be changing. Remember that clawback provisions can extend beyond fraud situations; they also may be part of other provisions such as non-compete requirements.
Know what your peer companies are doing and how it compares to your company. This is getting easier to do with enhanced proxy disclosure. If your company’s compensation philosophy already identifies peer companies or groups, then the difficult part has already been done for you. Check out the 2010 proxies from those companies and review their executive compensation practices. Also, keep up with the latest news on shareholder advisory votes; particularly keeping your eyes open for any executive compensation that does not garner vote of approval from shareholders.
Coordinate with your legal and compensation teams. First, it’s important to just keep the lines of communication open and be a part of the conversation. More specifically, find out if tackling say on pay (along with increased disclosure requirements) will require you to provide different or additional data and/or analysis. The earlier you know about additional data requirements, especially if they will ultimately be a periodic need, the more time you have to find the most efficient solution to providing that data.
The NASPP Conference’s Say on Pay Track
Hot off the presses! This week, we announced the “Say on Pay” track that we’ve added to our 18th Annual NASPP Conference. Don’t get left behind on decisions your company may be making in light of say on pay, join us for these essential sessions!
The popularity of performance-based equity compensation is growing. If your company is adopting a new performance plan, these are the top 5 things you’ll need to know in order to administer and communicate it to participants.
Performance criteria
Companies can spend a lot of time hammering out the best performance criteria to motivate employees as there are seemingly endless possibilities. The stock plan management team needs to have a very clear understanding of the performance measures being tracked for the grant (e.g., target EPS, milestones, or relative TSR) and how performance will impact the grant (e.g., will it determine the payout date, payout amount, or strike price).
These unique parameters determine how performance-based grants should be valued and how their expense is amortized. For example, if the performance goals are considered market-based, then the valuation takes the likelihood of vesting based on those conditions into consideration. Expense for awards that are not paid out due to not achieving the market condition is not reversed. You can find more on the valuation and amortization of performance-based grants in the article “Accounting for Performance and Market Awards” from Equity Methods.
Performance period(s)
With performance-based grants, the vesting period and the performance period may not be the same (in fact, it’s recommended that the vesting date be far enough after the end of the performance period to allow for approval of performance goal achievement). Some grants even have multiple performance periods within one grant. If the performance and vesting schedules differ, it is important that each is well-documented and tracked. It may not be possible to track separate periods within the same database, so detailed documentation is essential.
Performance attainment
It will also need to be very clear when performance measurement will take place and who will be responsible for determining the degree to which performance targets have been achieved. In order to qualify as “performance based” grants under 162(m), the compensation committee will need to certify that the performance targets have been met. To facilitate a smooth certification process, the other groups and individuals involved must be ready to report to the compensation committee as cohesively and promptly as possible. It may be just one group or person who can verify the performance target(s); in which case the company should develop a process to insure that that group or individual is prepared to evaluate performance at the end of the performance period. On the other hand, the evaluation may require multiple groups; in which case there should be a process in place to coordinate.
Terminations (and other details)
There are many important grant parameters that are not necessarily unique to performance-based grants. For example, the inclusion of dividends or dividend equivalents, the details of change of control provisions, and how terminations will impact the grants. I highlight terminations because there are additional considerations for performance grants, and because they are the most likely scenario to consider.
The trickiest termination consideration is what to do about grants where one or more performance periods have been met prior to termination; particularly for termination due to death, disability, or retirement.
Grant input and tracking
After all the details of a performance plan are in place and understood by everyone involved, there is still the challenge of how to get as much of the specifics of plan into the stock plan administration software. Many stock plan administration databases have some degree of tracking and reporting capabilities for performance-based grants. However, due to the amount of variation among existing performance plans, it is likely that there will be some degree of “outside the box” thinking around how to input each company’s performance plan.
If you are getting ready to input performance grants into your stock plan administration software, be sure to meet with your software provider to determine what can be entered in the database and what must be tracked outside the database or otherwise customized. You’ll need to be sure that you’ve found the best balance between the way the grant reflects in the participant interface, on expensing reports, and even how it impacts plan reserves.
Planning
Of course, the best way to have a manageable performance plan is to have the stock plan management team be an integral part of the planning process! The best way for the stock plan management team to get invited to the planning table is to be knowledgeable regarding performance plans prior to the adoption of a new plan.
Whether you’ve just been asked to manage a performance plan or your company is exploring the possibility, we have a fantastic program designed to get you prepared. Offered for the first time this year as a one-day intensive program preceding the 18th Annual NASPP Conference, “Practical Guide to Performance-Based Awards” will give you the substantive knowledge necessary to implement or administer this unique and emerging form of equity compensation.
Early bird rates for the pre-Conference sessions end on April 15th. If you are planning to attend both the Conference and the “Practical Guide to Performance-Based Awards”, you get a double-discount if you register before the early-bird rates for both end on April 15th. Register today!
On October 22nd, the Treasury’s Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation announced his determinations on the compensation packages of the executive officers and most highly paid employees at the seven companies under his review. Some of the changes that he requires of these companies are surprisingly significant.
Aligning with Shareholder Interests
We’ve seen a real push recently to encourage companies to structure compensation, for executives in particular, in a way that better protects shareholder interests. Government initiatives include say on pay, compensation committee independence, and assessment of how compensation programs may lead to excessive risk-taking. What truly stands out about these determinations is that when the government is given the opportunity to directly influence compensation structure, it has turned to equity compensation as the solution.
Cash is not King
The Special Master’s rulings drastically reduced the cash compensation received by the most highly paid individuals at the companies under his review. For AIG, Bank of America, and General Motors, cash compensation was reduced by more than 90%! In lieu of cash, these employees will receive vested stock that comes with very specific holding requirements intended to ensure repayment of TARP funds and continued financial stability for these companies. These percentages are so high because cash compensation is capped at $500,000 for most of the relevant employees.
Performance and Holding Requirements
In addition to this major shift from cash to equity in base salary, the Special Master’s determinations also impose a pretty specific structure for incentive compensation. He looks to performance-based restricted stock with minimum vesting periods as well as holding requirements on the vested stock. This two-pronged approach is designed to encourage specific outcomes in company performance as well as adjust the focus of top employees from short-term gain to long-term growth.
The Big Picture
Companies will be taking a look at how the Treasury has dealt with executive compensation at these seven companies and trying to decide what that means to them directly. What these determinations do is give us a window into exactly what the Treasury feels is a compensation structure that aligns executives with shareholder interest and discourages excessive risk-taking for short-term gain. Other companies will want to keep that in mind as they review their own executive compensation structures.
For the Equity Compensation Professional
These determinations mean that more companies will be reviewing their own compensation practices. The savvy stock plan administrator will be looking for a way to at least be a part of the conversation so that the grants come out of any new compensation structure can be managed without exposing the company to additional risk due to excessively complex features. Get some guidance on how to do this at our NASPP Conference Session, Wagging the Dog: Stock Plan Administrator Meets Compensation Consultant. Since it’s pretty clear that restricted stock, performance-based vesting, and some way to encourage top employees to hold onto their company stock as a long-term investment are looked upon as favorable practices, stock plan managers will want to reach out and learn as much as they can about administering plans with these features.
Only 4 days until the 17th Annual NASPP Conference! The Conference is sold out, but you can still sign up for the live nationwide video webcasts of the 4th Annual Proxy Disclosure Conference and the 6th Annual Executive Compensation Conference–you get both webcasts for the price of one.
You can hear any–and all–of the NASPP Conference sessions by purchasing the downloadable audio. Purchase just the sessions you want or save by purchasing one of the package deals.
We have a lot of great new content on our NASPP site! I want to take the opportunity this week to let you know about some of the new features.
First, we have a new Quick Survey out on Global Stock Plans. Don’t forget to take a moment and complete this survey! It’s your opportunity to find out how other companies are dealing with some of the more difficult issues with global stock plans.
New Portals:
The NASPP portals provide a way to find consolidated information on the issues that matter most in stock plan management. Today, we have 26 portals listed; expect to see more in the future! You can access the NASPP portals from the list on the lower left side of the homepage, or through the drop-down menu on the navigation bar at the top of the site. The newest additions to our list of portals are:
Incentive Stock Options: Need a quick reference on the grant requirements for ISOs? Want to find the latest on Section 6039 Information Statements? The Incentive Stock Options portal not only has the comprehensive NASPP article on ISOs, it has final ISO regulations, articles, surveys, and sample documents.
Say on Pay: The Treasury, Congress, and the SEC have all proposed some form of say on pay requirements for companies. Our new Say on Pay Portal contains the proposed regulations along with memos and analysis on each. You can also find sample proxy statements from companies that have already taken steps to add a shareholder vote on compensation practices.
Surveys & Studies: I’m sure you all know that the NASPP publishes all Quick Survey, Stock Plan Design and Administration Survey, and Salary Survey results in the Surveys section of the Member Area drop-down menu on the navigation bar. But, did you know that we also have available comprehensive surveys and studies conducted by some of the best names in the industry? We’ve put them all together for you in our new Surveys & Studies portal. We’ve arranged this portal in a three-tab format so that you can find the study or survey you’re looking for by topic, year produced, or by the company publishing the information.
Updated Portals:
In addition to adding new portals, we’ve also gone back and reorganized some of our existing ones so that new developments and content are easier to find. Check out the updated 409A/Deferred Compensation portals and Executive Compensation Disclosures portal!
New content:
Our latest alerts on stock plan management practices, legislative and regulatory development, and global stock plans are always available on the NASPP homepage as well the corresponding portal. These are a few of the most recent additions:
There have been a lot of changes in global stock plan management. Don’t get left behind; sign up to have the latest alerts from specific countries send directly to your e-mail. In the past month alone, we’ve posted multiple alerts on Australia, the European Union, Portugal, Ireland, India and China. Don’t forget that you can search our global stock plan alert archives by country.
We’re not done, yet! You won’t want to miss out on what we have in store for next year. Renew your NASPP membership for 2010. If you aren’t an NASPP member, take advantage of our special offer and join today!