Most CEOs Get Help With Financial Planning

Execs & Financial Planning: Tougher federal laws on the reporting of executive compensation are showing up in companies’ financial documents. In particular, public companies are providing greater detail about the financial-planning assistance given to top execs, according to Equilar Inc., which released the findings of its annual report on executive compensation. The new disclosure requirements were put in place to curb inflationary severance packages. For instance, 74 percent of companies reported providing financial planning-related incentives to executives in 2006, up dramatically from 2005, when less than 30 percent of companies acknowledged doing so. Executives in 2006 received financial planning services worth an average of $17.1 million, which is 16 percent higher than the $14.7 million tallied in 2005. Only a handful of companies—four of the Fortune 100—eliminated such benefits in 2007, according to Equilar, which is based in Redwood Shores, California.