TheCorporateCounsel.net

October 5, 2017

Course Materials: Updated Model Pay Ratio Disclosures, Expanded 156 Pay Ratio Nuggets & More!

For the many of you that have registered for our “Pay Ratio & Proxy Disclosure Conference” coming up in less than two weeks – starting on Tuesday, October 17th – we have posted the “Full Set of Course Materials.” The Course Materials are better than ever before – due to the new SEC pay ratio guidance that came out a few weeks ago, we have updated our “Annotated Model Pay Ratio Disclosures” – as well as our “How to” Pay Ratio Manual,” so that it now has 156 practice nuggets over 65 pages!

Here’s some other info:

How to Attend by Video Webcast: If you are registered to attend online, just go to the home page of TheCorporateCounsel.net or CompensationStandards.com to watch it live or by archive (note that it will take a few hours to post the video archives after the panels are shown live). A prominent link called “Enter the Conference Here” – which will be visible on the home pages of those sites – will take you directly to the Conference (and on the top of that Conference page, you will select a link matching the video player on your computer: HTML5, Windows Media or Flash Player).

Remember to use the ID and password that you received for the Conferences (which may not be your normal ID/password for TheCorporateCounsel.net or CompensationStandards.com). If you are experiencing technical problems, follow these webcast troubleshooting tips. Here are the conference agendas; times are Eastern.

How to Earn CLE Online: Please read these “FAQs about Earning CLE” carefully to see if it’s possible for you to earn CLE for watching online – and if so, how to accomplish that. Remember you will first need to input your bar number(s) and that you will need to click on the periodic “prompts” all throughout each Conference to earn credit. Both Conferences will be available for CLE credit in all states except for a few – but hours for each state vary; see our “CLE Credit By State” list.

Register Now to Watch Online: There is still time to register for our upcoming pair of executive pay conferences – which starts on Tuesday, October 17th – to hear Keith Higgins, Meredith Cross, etc. If you can’t make it to Washington DC to catch the program in person, you can still watch it by video webcast – either live or by archive. Register now to watch it online.

Register in Washington DC to Watch In-Person: Starting next Thursday, October 12th, you will no longer be able to register to attend in Washington DC through this site – but you can always register to attend when you arrive in DC! You just need to bring payment with you to the conference and register in-person. But until next Thursday, you can still register online to attend in DC…

Transcript: “Pay Ratio Workshop – What You (Truly Really) Need to Do Now”

We have posted the transcript for our recent pre-conference webcast: “Pay Ratio Workshop – What You (Truly Really) Need to Do Now.” Now get ready for the main event taking place in less than two weeks in Washington DC and by video webcast – 20 pay ratio panels over 2 days: “Pay Ratio & Proxy Disclosure Conference.” It’s time to register now…

SEC Seeks to Enhance Cybersecurity Expertise: Good Luck With That…

Yesterday, SEC Chair Clayton gave testimony before the House Financial Services Committee about the SEC’s budget for the agency’s next fiscal year. The Chair noted that he intended to ask for a $100 million increase over the $1.6 billion budget that the SEC currently has – and also planned to ask permission to lift the hiring freeze currently in place.

The main reason for the additional funds would be to enhance the SEC’s cybersecurity efforts. This article excerpts the key paragraph from the Chair’s testimony:

“The $234 million that the SEC plans to spend on information technology in fiscal year 2018 is quite modest, by way of comparison, to the amounts that the major Wall Street firms spend on their own information technology systems,” he said. “For example, in 2016 one large financial institution alone spent more than $9.5 billion on technology firm-wide, with $3 billion of that dedicated to new initiatives. Another large financial institution spent $6.6 billion in 2016 on technology initiatives.”

That paragraph says it all. When many are predicting a very serious shortage of cybersecurity expertise in the near future, how is a government agency able to compete in recruiting cybersecurity people worth their salt? The government is quite limited in the pay packages it can offer. It’s going to be a very uphill climb – even if Congress agrees to give the SEC this additional money…

Broc Romanek