Boards are continuing to adopt limits on the amount of compensation directors can earn in a year to protect against pay lawsuits alleging breach of fiduciary duty. However, as more suits have progressed, some boards are implementing new limits that appear to be trending lower than those adopted previously, and a few boards have even reduced existing limits.
For instance, the Synaptics board had previously adopted a $750,000 limit that applied to equity grants awarded to directors in a fiscal year. Starting in 2019, however, the $750,000 limit will now apply to cash and equity paid to directors. Similarly, the Alnylam Pharmaceuticals board adopted limits in 2016 covering the maximum number of shares of common stock that could be awarded to directors in initial and annual stock option grants. In 2018, the board reduced the number of options grants to directors and implemented new, lower limits based on the reduced options grants and adopted an aggregate limit covering the maximum number of shares that could be awarded to the full board.
Compensation committees at S&P 500 companies are increasingly tying annual bonuses to measures beyond financial…
The pay gap between CEOs and their employees has widened over the past half decade,…
Chip maker Broadcom gave Hock Tan, its chief executive, a $161 million stock award, instantly…
Elon's Musk's $56 billion pay package's upheaval, a hedge fund sanctioned for failing to preserve…
Disclosures about directors' skills and expertise are increasingly coming under the microscope as investors ramp…
On Jan. 1, several of the nation's biggest companies — including Morgan Stanley, Kraft Heinz,…