This article was designed for CEOs and other C-Suite, VPs or other senior executives who when negotiating a new job offer or employment contract need to give equal and perhaps greater focus on the structure and terms of bonus as they do to base salary compensation.
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My article discusses five (5) key bonus structures:

• Sign-on bonus to make the executive whole for items given up,
• Sign-on bonus to compensate for the risks in changing companies,
• Guaranteed bonus,
• Performance bonus based on company achievement,
• Performance bonus based on individual achievement.

The article also suggests other important issues in the determination, calculation and payout of the bonus.

To see my full CEOWorld magazine. article, go to LINK:  http://ceoworld.biz/2018/05/29/structuring-bonuses-in-your-ceo-compensation-for-maximum-benefit/
Or on my website at https://www.executiveemploymentattorney.com/structuring-bonuses-in-your-ceo-compensation-for-maximum-benefit/

With more than 12.4+ million page views, CEOWORLD magazine is the world’s leading business magazine written strictly for CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, senior management executives, business leaders, and high net worth individuals worldwide.


It is my hope that this article will be helpful to CEOs and other senior executives who are considering or re-visiting the executive compensation piece of a job offer or employment contract and need to focus on bonus structure and terms every bit as much as base salary. If you or any colleague of yours has a need in this area, please do reach out to me at radelson@engelschultz.com.

I have represented CEOs and senior executives working for companies in Massachusetts, elsewhere in New England and across the country, and I am available to answer all of your important questions. Contact me, your attorney for executive employment agreements at radelson@engelschultz.com or call 617-875-8665.

On September 6, 2017, CEOWorld magazine published an article I wrote on “Getting the Benefits of Equity Compensation from Family Businesses through Phantom Stock.”This article was designed for CEOs, C-suite executives and other senior executives who currently work in a family business or are offered a position in a family business and receive now or are offered NO equity compensation because most family businesses do not issue equity to non-family members.

My article discusses the use of Phantom stock as a mean to give the executive a substitute to equal for him or her all the benefits that stock, options or RSUs would provide to the executive in a non-family business.

Techniques used in the past and offered to the reader can produce a true “win-win” by providing key benefits to the family business as well as to the CEO or other senior executive, including the following

• For the Family Business: Creates key executive recruitment tool to offer stake in growth and effectively compete with equity offered by non-family businesses, plus “golden handcuffs” to retain the services of senior executives over the years

• For the Family Business: Provides this tool with no usage of actual stock or options and no rights as stockholder of company

• For the Family Business: All payments made under the plan are fully tax deductible to the family business.

• For the Executive: Gives executive a meaningful stake in the growth of the business, a true share of what the executive achieves for the business

• For the Executive: Provides a liquidity feature often missing in stock plans of private companies.

• For the Executive: Phantom Stock Plans can be structured to replicate options or RSUs, and can also be structured to offers the possibility for capital gains level taxation, in after tax income achieved

My article includes a hypothetical example, where a 55-year-old executive is to take the CEO position as successor to the 75-year-old family CEO.  In this example, the successor CEO negotiates for the establishment of a phantom stock plan as a condition to taking the position.  The intention is that the successor CEO receive phantom stock under the phantom stock plan as an important part of his (her) executive compensation package and that the plan would continue after that to enable the successor CEO to use phantom stock to recruit other non-family senior executives to further bolster management of the family business.

To see my full CEOWorld magazine. article, go to LINK:  http://ceoworld.biz/2017/09/06/getting-the-benefits-of-equity-compensation-from-family-businesses-through-phantom-stock/
or my website:
https://www.executiveemploymentattorney.com/articles-section/getting-the-benefits-of-equity-compensation-from-family-businesses-through-phantom-stock/

With more than 12.4+ million-page views, CEOWORLD magazine is the world’s leading business magazine written strictly for CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, senior management executives, business leaders, and high net worth individuals worldwide.

It is my hope that this article will be helpful to (1) CEOs and senior executives working in family businesses, (2) CEOs and senior executives considering taking positions in family businesses, and (3) leaders of  family businesses seeking to recruit non-family members as the new CEO or other senior executives. If you or any colleague of yours has a need in this area, please do reach out to me, your executive employment lawyer, at radelson@engelschultz.com or call 617-875-8665.

On July 10, 2017, CEOWorld magazine published an article I wrote on  “Restricted Stock And Other Equity Options For Your Executive Compensation Package” This article was designed for CEOs, C-suite executives and other senior executives who are negotiating stock, options, RSUs or other equity as part of their compensation package. 

The article first discusses the key ways to assure value in your executive equity compensation package –

• What will be the strike price?  Is there opportunity for considerable appreciation within the given time horizon.

• Did you receive enough equity to make this worth it?  In the article, I give an example where the executive with a base salary of $400,000, has an equity award of $2 million vesting over 4 years, and then state that because the executive started with equity whose aggregate strike price was $2 million, 3x appreciation translated to an appreciation of $4 million.  Had the aggregate strike price been $200,000, then even with 3x growth, the potential gain for 4 years would only have been $400,000.

• Type of equity and its tax treatment is important.  There are many choices in how to structure equity.  The executive in a high potential growth or turnaround situation should seek the structure for his or her equity that offers the best prospect for capital gains on the appreciation.

The article then goes on to discuss the merits of Stock Options both, non-qualified and incentive stock options, Restricted Stock and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
The article indicates that in the high growth and turnaround situations, the much better choice is to get all or a significant part of your equity structured as Restricted Stock, which offers these. significant advantages:

• Avoiding the strike price. CEO and executive restrictive stock grants often grant the stock at zero cost so there is no payment of the strike price.

• Retention of value on termination. ISOs must expire within 90 days of employment termination, and though the tax code does not require that for Non-quals, those options are typically written the same way. With restricted stock, once you vest, you own and retain it. The company cannot cancel your stock on termination unless there is a buy-back provision.
  

• Capital Gains Tax Treatment. Typically, an IRC Section 83(b) election is made within 30 days of the grant of restricted stock.  This is accompanied by payment of the value of the stock issued (For true startups, the stock may be worth little at founding and a nominal payment is made which is fair market value at the time). After that, if the stock is held more than a year, all appreciation will be taxed at capital gains rates and that tax will fall only on sale of the shares.
  

My article also discusses how  RSUs structure is quite desirable in companies where high growth is not expected and the executive wants to be assured of equity that will have value.  For more information on RSUs, see my February 2017  CEOWorld article focused entirely on RSUs – LINK:  http://www.executiveemploymentattorney.com/articles-section/the-advantage-of-rsus-in-your-ceo-compensation-package/

My article on “Restricted Stock And Other Equity Options For Your Executive Compensation Package”   was published July 10, 2017 by CEOWorld magazine.
To see my full article, go to http://www.executiveemploymentattorney.com/restricted-stock-and-other-equity-options-for-your-executive-compensation-package/

With more than 12.4+ million page views, CEOWORLD magazine is the world’s leading business magazine written strictly for CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, senior management executives, business leaders, and high net worth individuals worldwide.

It is my hope that this article will be helpful to senior executives who are negotiating equity terms as part of their compensation package going into a new position or in connection with a raise, promotion or change of control.  If you or any colleague of yours has a need in this area, please do reach out to me, your executive employment lawyer, at radelson@engelschultz.com.