Designing an Executive LTI program requires balancing leadership rewards with key considerations such as cost, tax, global compliance, and recruitment. This panel will examine the complexities of navigating diverse stakeholder requirements, including those of Boards, Compensation Committees, Audit Committees, and external advisors like ISS and Glass Lewis, which often vary across jurisdictions.

The session will focus on the challenges faced by companies in the EU/UK compared to their U.S. counterparts, exploring how to balance incentive effectiveness with increasing scrutiny.

KEY LEARNING POINTS:

• Explore strategies for aligning executive LTI programs with the diverse expectations of Compensation Committees, proxy advisors, and other stakeholders.
• Discuss how to design programs that effectively balance long-term performance objectives with retention strategies.
• Uncover approaches for managing costs and global compliance requirements while maintaining program integrity.

Administering equity plans extends far beyond initial design, with every choice made having downstream effects on compliance, data management, and daily operations. These decisions impact a broad range of stakeholders, including employees, employers, shareholders, and service providers. Balancing these needs against operational complexities such as cross-border compliance and regulatory requirements is a constant challenge for equity plan administrators.

This roundtable session will explore the critical interplay between plan design and administration, offering practical strategies and tools—such as checklists and matrices—to help anticipate and manage these downstream effects.

KEY LEARNING POINTS:

• Share insights and challenges around differing regulatory requirements across jurisdictions and how they shape plan design.
• Discuss the ripple effects of plan design on data management, exploring collaborative solutions for maintaining accuracy and security in scalable systems.
• Consider practical strategies for balancing the diverse needs of employees, employers, and shareholders with administrative processes.

As remote and location-independent work continues to rise, managing tax and social security implications for employees working in different countries presents unique challenges for both employers and employees.

This session will explore how location-independent workers impact the tax and social security sourcing for equity-based compensation and how companies can navigate these complexities.

KEY LEARNING POINTS:

• Understand the tax and social security challenges faced by location-independent workers and how they affect equity compensation.
• Learn about the impact of vesting periods on tax sourcing and the administrative burdens for both issuers and employees.
• Explore the solutions companies are implementing in response to these challenges within the EU and OECD framework.

As Boards of Directors strive to refine the goal-setting process for short-term and long-term incentive programs, many are turning to advanced financial modeling techniques like Monte Carlo simulation.

In this session, explore how heightened macroeconomic volatility over the past five years has reshaped goal-setting practices and delve into the processes companies use to set and communicate performance goals effectively.

KEY LEARNING POINTS:

• Understand how recent economic instability has influenced goal-setting methodologies for incentive programs.
• Discover best practices for setting and communicating performance goals in alignment with organizational objectives.
• Learn how Monte Carlo simulations can provide actionable data for evaluating performance metrics and optimizing incentive payouts.

Long-term incentive (LTI) design is becoming increasingly complex as organizations face shifting macroeconomic conditions. Companies are tasked with incorporating ESG metrics, managing relative performance awards, and setting meaningful goals amidst market volatility.

This session will explore the latest trends in LTI vehicles, metrics, and structures, offering actionable strategies for adapting LTI plans to meet current and future challenges.

KEY LEARNING POINTS:

• Explore recent trends in LTI design, with a focus on the growing importance of ESG metrics and relative performance awards.
• Learn effective strategies for setting performance goals in an unpredictable economic environment.
• Understand how emerging trends are shaping the structure and impact of long-term incentive plans.

In a globalised business environment, offering equity plans that cater to diverse workforces across multiple jurisdictions presents unique challenges. While global share plans provide a consistent framework, many companies adopt local tax-approved sub-plans to align with regional tax incentives and regulations. This dual structure offers significant benefits but also introduces operational complexities.

This expert panel will delve into the intricacies of implementing global equity plans alongside local sub-plans, offering practical strategies and tools to help organisations strike the right balance between global consistency and local relevance. Attendees will gain actionable insights and tools, including frameworks for aligning objectives and managing complexities.

KEY LEARNING POINTS:

• Understand the benefits of local tax-approved sub-plans in enhancing participation, delivering tax efficiencies, and boosting engagement by tailoring benefits regionally.
• Explore strategies for harmonising global equity plan objectives with local regulations, tax laws, and cultural considerations.
• Learn practical approaches to managing the operational impacts of running global plans with local variants, including streamlined administration, effective communication, and accurate reporting.

In 2022, ErsteGroup launched WeShare by ErsteGroup, an annual employee share plan with a five-year holding period that achieved an impressive 88% participation rate across seven countries. This session will explore the strategies behind the programme's success, including creative plan design, effective financial education, and approaches to addressing challenges during its multi-country rollout.

KEY LEARNING POINTS:

• Explore how well-structured plan design, including an annual offering model and a five-year holding period, boosted participation rates.
• Understand how targeted financial education campaigns improved employee knowledge, engagement, and confidence in the programme.
• Gain insights into tackling cross-country implementation challenges and fine-tuning post-launch processes to enhance programme outcomes.