Millions Paid to Dead CEOs: Outrage Over 'Golden Coffins'

[marmar]

via Yahoo!:



Millions Paid to Dead CEOs: Outrage Over 'Golden Coffins'
Posted Jun 10, 2008 12:08pm EDT by Aaron Task in Investing


If you think "golden parachutes" for CEOs are scandalous, then brace yourself for the latest outrage: "golden coffins."

Yes, that's right. It's not enough that American CEOs get paid gigantic sums, many are also due to collect huge severance packages after they die, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Among the more outrageous posthumous packages:

* $298.1 million for Comcast CEO Brian Roberts
* $288 million for Nabors CEO Eugene Isenberg
* $115.6 million for Occidental CEO Ray Irani
* $17 million for Shaw Group CEO J.M. Bernhard to not compete with the firm after he dies

The practice is time-honored but was largely hidden until a recent change to disclosure requirements. Defenders say the packages are merely "deferred compensation" or geared to aid estate-planning and tax efficiency.

Even after the scandals of Enron and WorldCom, it's pretty clear that many CEOs -- and their boards -- have no shame when it comes to compensation.

Barring an act of Congress, the only way these practices will change is if shareholders demand it and/or stories such as the Journal's embarrass companies into reviewing these practices.


http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/25925/Millions-Paid-to-Dead-CEOs-Outrage-Over-'Golden-Coffins'?tickers=CMCSA,NBR,SGR,OXY

[Cerridwen]

1. The inverse of "dead peasant insurance".

Such a lovely thing are megacorps.

Link to one article about dead peasant insurance

Sound outrageous? Such corporate-owned life insurance is also big business:

* Companies pay a whopping $8 billion in premiums each year for such coverage, according to the American Council of Life Insurers, a trade group.
* The policies make up more than 20% of the all the life insurance sold each year.
* Companies expect to reap more than $9 billion in tax breaks from these policies over the next five years. The policies are treated as whole life policies. So, companies can borrow against the policies (though the IRS won't let them write off the interest). And the death benefits are tax-free.

Hundreds of companies -- including Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney and Winn-Dixie -- have purchased this insurance on more than 6 million rank-and-file workers.

[TooBigaTent]

2. Do NOT be fooled by McInsane's lie about restricting executive salaries. His statement

that he would regulate this theivery by having rules that say that "all aspects of a CEO's pay, including any severance arrangements, must be approved by shareholders" is a total sham.

Who owns enough shares to make sure these sweetheart deals are approved? The same assholes who benefit from the current unregulated system. There will be as little success in exerting control under this system as "shareholders" have had in imposing environmental, fair-labor, or human rights provisions on today's corporations.

[OhioChick]

3. K&R

:kick: