Current Pay Governance Viewpoints

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  Are ISS and Glass Lewis Say on Pay Voting Policies Correlated with Improved Total Shareholder Returns?

  By Ira T. Kay, Brian Johnson, Brian Lane and Blaine Martin

  The vast majority—98%—of companies have passed their annual say on pay votes (SOP) over the past four years. Proxy advisor voting recommendations remain highly influential on these votes, and many companies, perhaps hundreds, have changed the structure of their executive pay programs to try to comply with proxy advisor policies and to obtain a “FOR” SOP vote recommendation from proxy advisors. Read More
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  REIT Pay Practices Continue to Evolve

  By Christine Oberholzer Skizas, Jeffrey W. Joyce, Linda Pappas and Steve DeMaria

  The REIT structure was created in 1960 when President Eisenhower signed into law the REIT Tax Act. A wave of REIT formations and initial public offerings (IPOs) followed. Another wave of IPOs occurred in the 1990s. Historically, REITs tended to have relatively high insider ownership – founded by individuals, families or partners and, in some cases, eventually taken public. Read More
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  SEC Issues Proposed Rules Regarding Disclosure of Hedging Rules; ISS and Glass Lewis Release New Documents Regarding Executive Pay Policies

  By John R. Ellerman and Linda Pappas

  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just released its proposed rules regarding the requirement for companies to report as to whether employees and non-employee directors are allowed to hedge or offset the decrease in market value of equity securities. Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has just released a new document explaining the firm’s latest policies with respect to executive compensation, including its say on pay advisory voting services. Another proxy advisory firm, Glass, Lewis & Co. LLC (Glass Lewis), has implemented changes to its pay for performance and equity plan models. Read More
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  Glass Lewis Releases New Proxy Guidelines for 2015

  By John R. Ellerman

  Proxy advisory firm Glass, Lewis & Co. LLC (“Glass Lewis”) has just published a new 45 page report which provides an overview to the Glass Lewis approach to advising its institutional investor clients regarding proxy matters. For the 2015 proxy season, Glass Lewis has noted six policy changes which are highlighted in the report. In order to keep our clients abreast of these changes in Glass Lewis policy, Pay Governance has summarized these policy changes Read More

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