Administration December 29, 2006

GE Agrees to Disclose Business Arrangements with Exec Pay Advisers

December 29, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - General Electric Co. has agreed to a request by a group of shareholders to go beyond regulatory requirements and disclose any business ties it may have with the firms that advise it on how to pay its top executives.
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Dow Jones Newswires reports a GE spokesman said the company will make this information available in its upcoming proxy statement, which it usually files in early March ahead of the April shareholders’ meeting. In October, a group of 13 institutional investors sent letters to the 25 largest Standard & Poor’s 500 companies requesting the information.

The concern of the institutional investor group is consultants may be reluctant to provide objective advice on executive pay if they rely on management’s approval to win other business at the companies they advise. “It is critical … that a compensation consultant be free of any conflict of interest, perceived or actual,” the letter said, according to the news report.

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The group of shareholders plans to announce Tuesday the results of their letter campaign, a spokesman for Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier told the news service. He said the shareholders may submit proposals asking investors to vote in favor of the disclosure if companies do not volunteer to make the information public.

As for GE, the company spokesman said GE used the services of New York compensation consulting firm Frederic W. Cook & Co. and had no business agreements with that firm beyond compensation consulting.

Benefits December 28, 2006

Americans Cite Health Care in Retirement as Top Concern

December 28, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Echoing the findings of other similar polls, a new survey from Edward Jones found that nearly one-third of Americans are most concerned about not having enough to pay for their health care needs in retirement.
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An Edward Jones news release said the number of respondents expressing the health care concern significantly eclipsed the number who cited other issues such as having to work during one’s later years. Not surprisingly, nearly half of those respondents nearest to retirement age (55 to 64 years old) were much more likely to be concerned about health care costs than their younger counterparts (43% vs.10%).

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“In many ways, Americans are saying they are concerned that health and medical costs are likely to take the biggest chunk out of their nest eggs,” said Lindsey Wilkins, a partner and retirement planning expert at Edward Jones, in the news release.

The study, conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of the St. Louis-based financial services firm, also found that one in five respondents said they would have to rely on others to support them after they stopped working. Baby boomers were more positive about the future than others, with only 11% of boomers saying they expect to rely on others financially in their retirement.

Retirement concerns were also not confined to those households with lower incomes. In fact, the reverse is true as those with an income of more than $75,000 were much more concerned about paying for their health care later in life (33%) than those with an income of $25,000 (16%).

More information about Edward Jones is here .

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