Benefits June 12, 2007

Big Company CEOs Fare Best with Pensions

June 12, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - New research from The Corporate Library reveals that corporate defined benefit pensions are disappearing for all but the CEOs of the largest companies.
Reported by

The Corporate Library said in a press release the data it collected showed almost three-quarters of CEOs in the S&P 500 were eligible for a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP), while only a quarter of CEOs in Small Cap companies were.

In total, only two-fifths of CEOs were eligible for SERPs, with by far the highest concentration in Large Cap and S&P 500 companies, the release said. The total benefits for individual CEOs ranged from over $90 million to zero.

The study also found that the provision of a pension benefit appeared to have no effect in retaining CEOs, as tenure for CEOs with SERPs was the same as for CEOs without the benefit.

The watchdog group looked at 1,829 proxy statements that had been filed under the new SEC disclosure regime, which for the first time requires companies to disclose the accumulated benefits or the lump sum pensions of CEOs and other officers.

The full report can be purchased in The Corporate Library’s online store at www.thecorporatelibrary.com .

«