
System of recognizing variable (i.e. bonus) executive compensation by depositing it into an account and distributing it to (or withdrawing it from) the account holder depending on the performance of the company over a certain period of time.
Continue reading "Bonus Banking"

Like hemlines, the number of "going private" transactions goes up
and down with trends. Before the meltdown, private equity seemed to
rule the world and notable going private transactions seemed to occur
on a daily basis. Then, like the dinosaurs, the deals just disappeared.
Unlike the dinosaurs, "going private" may be ready for a comeback
(unless the current deal environment is just the equivalent of Jurassic Park
— lots of bluster for a not too good flick.) Anyway, for Toolbox, the
term "going private" seems mysteriously simple, and yet the
transactions are anything but. By media accounts, it's like a public
company gets bashful all of a sudden, begins to blush, de-lists its
public shares and goes to hide in a closet somewhere. But there's
actually a method to the process that allows the privatized entity to
continue post-public as if nothing ever happened (save the obligatory
cost-cutting measures and fealty to new ownres). So what's the process
that finds a public company going private?
Continue reading "How To Handle Shy Companies: Going Private Timelines "

With unemployment hovering somewhere between 9.7 and 18 percent
depending on to whom you talk, Toolbox figures a lot of discouraged
former employees are feeling screwed — some enough so to file a lawsuit
alleging some form of wrongdoing by their employer in letting them go
or in dealing with them while they were working. And applying the old
adage (ok, Toolbox made it up), "Where there's a risk, there's an
insurance policy for it," you figure there ought to be some way for an
employer to insure against alleged misdeeds in its hiring, firing and
maintaining practices. And by gosh, there is. It's called employment
practices liability insurance. Most have probably never heard of it
because it's a fairly select group that would have use for it.

Richard C. Ferlauto (AFSCME) begins Compensation Best Practices Overview with the missive "Compensation is an annual concern." Of course, with pay czar Kenneth Feinberg overseeing the compensation of companies that received TARP funds, with Congress making noises about excessive compensation, and with the citizenry (not to mention shareholders) seemingly on the verge of revolt, one could say that compensation has become a constant and systemic concern. And that makes it a concern for you, as you deal with boards and executives whose decisions and livelihoods are impacted by the latest challenge to how they are paid. The time for some ideas just comes, and with 75 percent of directors and investors agreeing that the "U.S. executive pay model has hurt corporate America's image," that time may be now. So how do companies compensate fairly without paying the piper of public derision and regulatory impingement?

Reimbursement paid by a company to cover the tax liability on variable compensation.
Continue reading "Tax Gross-Up"
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