"Liberty Mutual, MassMutual CEOs won big pay boosts" by Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, March 02, 2013
Massachusetts insurance giants Liberty Mutual and MassMutual both gave their top executives significantly bigger pay packages last year as the companies continued to grow, the companies reported this week.
Liberty Mutual chief executive David H. Long received $8.9 million in total compensation, including $1 million salary, $3.6 million bonus, and millions more in phantom stock awards and other compensation. That’s up 29 percent from 2011, when he served as chief executive for only part of the year.
The Boston insurance company’s profits more than doubled last year to $829 million, despite recording $886 million in pre-tax losses due to Hurricane Sandy, the company reported in year-end earnings Friday. Liberty Mutual, best known for its auto and home insurance, received nearly 100,000 claims from the storm, pushing the company into the red for the fourth quarter.
Related: Globe Says Come On Down to the New Jersey Shore
Where did all the insurance loot go, and why are they paying higher taxes? If you read past the deceptive headline you will see it's a rate increase. You are paying less because YOUR PROPERTY VALUES are MUCH LOWER -- and that, according the the corporate pre$$, is a GOOD THING!
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. chief executive Roger Crandall earned $11.3 million last year, up 20 percent from 2011, as the company reported stronger profits. His total compensation included nearly $1 million salary and a $3.4 million bonus (more than double his 2011 incentive), plus phantom stock awards and other compensation. Private companies use phantom stock programs to mimic stock and options at publicly traded companies to reward executives who make the company more valuable.
Related: The Land of Liberty
I $uppo$e it is for $ome.
Both companies reported the compensation on their websites this week to comply with new state rules requiring mutual insurers, which are owned by their policyholders rather than shareholders, to disclose how much they paid their top executives and directors either by mailing the information to policyholders or posting the data online. State lawmakers and regulators enacted the new rules last year after the Globe reported that former Liberty Mutual chief executive Edmund F. “Ted” Kelly had received roughly $200 million from the company over four years, making him one of the highest paid executives in the country.
The payments were particularly controversial because Liberty Mutual is mutually owned for the benefit of its policyholders, so critics said the money should have gone back to members or been invested back into the business. Liberty Mutual defended the pay at the time, saying the figures were misleading because Kelly cashed in phantom stock awards that he had accumulated over more than a decade.
Executives also credited Kelly with helping to build the company into Boston’s only Fortune 100 firm, making the awards worth more.
The company also reported Friday that Kelly, the former top executive who stepped down in 2011, received $422,636 for his service as chairman of the board last year.
It's not $50 million a year, but....
Other company directors received pay ranging from about $134,000 to $279,000. Meanwhile, MassMutual said it paid all five of its top executives more last year, mostly because of higher incentive awards. Three executives received increases ranging from 33 percent to 45 percent.
I gotta get on a board.
But the company also pointed out it enjoyed a strong year. The company’s revenue climbed 36 percent to $19.7 billion, while earnings rose 90 percent to $872 million. The company ended the year with a surplus (one measure of financial strength) of $12.7 billion, up 11 percent.
Sorry, but I was raised on private central banking debt creation and enslavement so I do not know what you are talking about.
Company spokesman Mark Cybulski said the company’s compensation is designed to help attract and retain talented executives and is determined by the board based on company performance, individual performance, industry practices, and other factors.
Stop it with the lame-ass excuses for ripping us all off.
The company said board members, who set the pay, received between $202,000 and $241,000 each.
The state Division of Insurance launched a review of executive compensation practices at insurers last year, but has yet to release the findings.
--more--"
And that isn't including the perks:
"Executive perks still alive and well" by Beth Healy | Globe Staff, April 12, 2013
Private jets, chauffeurs, financial planning services, Red Sox tickets. Executive perquisites are still alive and well at many public companies, even after a decade of intense shareholder scrutiny.
I'm not opposed to this per se; however, I am when the rest of us are suffering so badly and the money junkies that run and populate the institutions keep grabbing more, more, more!
While many corporate boards have trimmed perks, a handful of choice benefits still remain luxury fixtures in the corner office. These perks typically come to light this time each year, when public companies file shareholder proxy statements that disclose the information.
A review of recent filings shows that personal use of company aircraft remains popular. For example, EMC Corp.’s chief executive, Joseph Tucci, took home not just more than $16 million last year in cash, stock and incentives; he also received $113,545 in side benefits of the job, including private jet travel, the services of a financial planner, and a special medical exam for executives....
Related: EMC Had an Excellent Year
They do every year. I link you can see why.
At Boston Scientific Corp., chief executive Michael Mahoney recorded $71,853 of allowed personal use of the aircraft.
And they are cutting jobs?
“There are still definitely companies that give out a number of things — things that are actually very expensive and questionable,’’ said David Eaton, a vice president at Glass, Lewis & Co., a San Francisco firm that advises large investors on how to vote on shareholder matters. And with perquisites generally on the decline, he said, compensation committees are feeling more pressure to justify certain expenses.
EMC’s board, for instance, recently told shareholders that it pays between $10,000 and $15,000 each for several top executives to get tax and financial planning services so they can focus more time and attention on their jobs with the Hopkinton data storage giant. Similarly, personal use of the company’s Gulfstream or other aircraft is permitted “to reduce these executives’ travel time and to allow them to devote more time to work duties.”
Many of the reported perks are small relative to executives’ total compensation. Indeed, the modest amounts are what make some of them stand out....
State Street chief executive Jay Hooley, who took home $15.6 million last year, also had a car and driver, a perk worth $27,852, and received $9,336 for personal and home security. Both are benefits typical of major Wall Street firms, which say they are necessary to keep top executives safe.
They truly are frightened of workers and the rabble.
In a statement, State Street spokeswoman Alicia Curran said the company provides “a modest level of perquisites” to executive officers, “because we believe that some level of personal benefits is necessary as part of a competitive compensation arrangement for senior executives.”
While these items are likely small benefits to executives with multimillion-dollar pay packages, they can look like luxuries to average workers.
They aren't paying for your tax services or home security, are they?
For instance, at Dunkin’ Donuts parent Dunkin’ Brands Group, chief executive Nigel Travis and other top executives each got $2,160 worth of Red Sox tickets last year. In Travis’s case, that was down from $12,123 the prior year, when the top brass also received “flexible allowances” along with sports tickets.
At LPL Financial Holdings Inc., a Boston-based network of brokers, shareholders covered $1,479 in brokerage commissions for chief executive Mark Casady. He also got $28,169 for his car lease, as part of a $4.7 million total pay package.
At PerkinElmer Inc., a Waltham maker of medical and environmental products, chief executive Robert Friel made $10.8 million last year. His perks included a $25,000 car allowance, $20,000 for a financial planner, and a $50,000 donation by the company to match gifts of his own.
Compensation specialists say some of these perks are relics of a time gone by, when executives had long lists of special benefits, along with massive exit pay packages when they retired or sold their companies.
Except they are still getting them.
These days, boards are looking for directors with especially strong backbones to serve on their compensation committees and take a harder look at pay and perks. Still, these benefits are not easy to take away....
--more--"
Liberty Mutual literally looking down you and your well-being:
"Liberty Mutual’s new Boston tower opening soon" by Casey Ross | Globe Staff, June 26, 2013
On the 22d floor, the views from Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.’s new office tower in the Back Bay cut in every direction. There are stunning scenes of the Charles River and Boston Harbor, and an equally mesmerizing glimpse of Columbus Avenue as it slices through the South End.
It is a compelling perch from which to view a growing city.
Liberty Mutual is a company recently criticized for showering its executives with extravagant pay and perks, but its tower is hardly bedecked with gold-rimmed opulence....
The $300 million tower was built with millions in public aid, including investment tax credits potentially worth $22.5 million from the state and $24 million in property tax breaks from the city.
For a company that calls Massachusetts home and made nearly a billion dollars as they handed out raises and the rest. Did they really "need" the help?
And you wonder why I'm sour on the looting $cheme that we call government in 21st-century AmeriKa?
Those subsidies came as Liberty Mutual revealed it had paid its former chief executive, Edmund F. “Ted” Kelly, $50 million a year, making him among the most highly paid corporate bosses in the country.
Kelly’s compensation irked watchdog groups and policyholders because Liberty Mutual is mutually owned, a structure under which surplus profits are typically distributed to customers as dividends or invested in the company. Kelly, who led a threefold revenue increase at Liberty Mutual, is leaving this year after two decades....
Liberty Mutual emphasized that the tower’s construction created 500 jobs and will generate $70 million in real estate taxes for the city over the next 20 years. The company employs 4,900 people in Massachusetts, including more than 3,100 in Boston....
Patting themselves on the back while picking taxpayers (and rate payers) pockets.
Sean Murphy, director of real estate for Liberty Mutual., said the new glass footbridge over Stuart Street, connecting the new tower to an older structure, is one of the executives’ favorite new elements — even though during planning it drew criticism as something that would take foot traffic off the street below....
Yeah, that will help the trickle-down effect. The reason the execs like it is so they won't have to go down to the street and possibly bump into a member of the rabble.
--more--"
"Liberty Mutual’s Ted Kelly stepping down as chairman" by Taryn Luna | Globe Correspondent, April 10, 2013
Edmund F. “Ted” Kelly, who led Liberty Mutual Group to a threefold revenue increase while earning some $200 million in his last four years as chief executive, will step down as chairman this summer and end more than two decades with the company, the Boston insurer said Wednesday....
Kelly became the source of controversy last year when state insurance filings revealed he received nearly $50 million a year from 2008 to 2010.
The company defended the pay, saying that it reflected Kelly’s success in transforming Liberty Mutual from a struggling insurer to a Fortune 100 company. Liberty Mutual officials also said regulatory filings skewed Kelly’s pay because they included long-term incentives that Kelly earned over the course of his career but cashed in near the end of his tenure.
Liberty Mutual is a mutual company, owned by its policyholders, and Attorney General Martha Coakley questioned why a company would increase rates on its policyholders at the same time it boosted a top executive’s pay to roughly $200 million in four years.
Ooooooooh!! They increased rates!
The pay also sparked criticism from government watchdogs, irked that Liberty Mutual received $46.5 million in state and local tax incentives in 2010 to build a tower near its Back Bay headquarters and create 600 jobs.
The uproar over Kelly’s pay led the Legislature last year to require mutual insurers based in Massachusetts to either post executive pay details on their public website or mail the information to policyholders.
Kelly earned roughly $400,000 a year as chairman. Company spokesman John Cusolito said Kelly will relinquish access to company jets and other perks when he steps down.
Who knows what his severance and pension payments are going to be.
The Irish native graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and earned a PhD in mathematics at MIT. He worked with Aetna Life and Casualty Co. for 18 years before joining Liberty Mutual, then a struggling firm that depended heavily on workers’ compensation business.
They used to help workers, huh? And there was no money in it?
Kelly diversified the business and expanded primarily through acquisitions, more than doubling its workforce and number of offices. Liberty Mutual had more than $34 billion in annual sales in 2011, Kelly’s last year as chief executive, up from $11 billion in 1998, his first year as CEO.
Kelly’s most contentious move came more than a decade ago, when he created a holding company for Liberty Mutual, which allowed the company to sell a minority stake in subsidiaries to outside investors without compensating policyholders. The change also made it more difficult to track the pay of Liberty Mutual executives.
If it wasn't all legal I'd say it looks like looting.
--more--"
Also see: Liberty Mutual will up charitable giving
You can thank the rate hikes.
Meanwhile, over at Mass. Mutual:
And that isn't including the perks:
"Executive perks still alive and well" by Beth Healy | Globe Staff, April 12, 2013
Private jets, chauffeurs, financial planning services, Red Sox tickets. Executive perquisites are still alive and well at many public companies, even after a decade of intense shareholder scrutiny.
I'm not opposed to this per se; however, I am when the rest of us are suffering so badly and the money junkies that run and populate the institutions keep grabbing more, more, more!
While many corporate boards have trimmed perks, a handful of choice benefits still remain luxury fixtures in the corner office. These perks typically come to light this time each year, when public companies file shareholder proxy statements that disclose the information.
A review of recent filings shows that personal use of company aircraft remains popular. For example, EMC Corp.’s chief executive, Joseph Tucci, took home not just more than $16 million last year in cash, stock and incentives; he also received $113,545 in side benefits of the job, including private jet travel, the services of a financial planner, and a special medical exam for executives....
Related: EMC Had an Excellent Year
They do every year. I link you can see why.
At Boston Scientific Corp., chief executive Michael Mahoney recorded $71,853 of allowed personal use of the aircraft.
And they are cutting jobs?
“There are still definitely companies that give out a number of things — things that are actually very expensive and questionable,’’ said David Eaton, a vice president at Glass, Lewis & Co., a San Francisco firm that advises large investors on how to vote on shareholder matters. And with perquisites generally on the decline, he said, compensation committees are feeling more pressure to justify certain expenses.
EMC’s board, for instance, recently told shareholders that it pays between $10,000 and $15,000 each for several top executives to get tax and financial planning services so they can focus more time and attention on their jobs with the Hopkinton data storage giant. Similarly, personal use of the company’s Gulfstream or other aircraft is permitted “to reduce these executives’ travel time and to allow them to devote more time to work duties.”
Many of the reported perks are small relative to executives’ total compensation. Indeed, the modest amounts are what make some of them stand out....
State Street chief executive Jay Hooley, who took home $15.6 million last year, also had a car and driver, a perk worth $27,852, and received $9,336 for personal and home security. Both are benefits typical of major Wall Street firms, which say they are necessary to keep top executives safe.
They truly are frightened of workers and the rabble.
In a statement, State Street spokeswoman Alicia Curran said the company provides “a modest level of perquisites” to executive officers, “because we believe that some level of personal benefits is necessary as part of a competitive compensation arrangement for senior executives.”
While these items are likely small benefits to executives with multimillion-dollar pay packages, they can look like luxuries to average workers.
They aren't paying for your tax services or home security, are they?
For instance, at Dunkin’ Donuts parent Dunkin’ Brands Group, chief executive Nigel Travis and other top executives each got $2,160 worth of Red Sox tickets last year. In Travis’s case, that was down from $12,123 the prior year, when the top brass also received “flexible allowances” along with sports tickets.
At LPL Financial Holdings Inc., a Boston-based network of brokers, shareholders covered $1,479 in brokerage commissions for chief executive Mark Casady. He also got $28,169 for his car lease, as part of a $4.7 million total pay package.
At PerkinElmer Inc., a Waltham maker of medical and environmental products, chief executive Robert Friel made $10.8 million last year. His perks included a $25,000 car allowance, $20,000 for a financial planner, and a $50,000 donation by the company to match gifts of his own.
Compensation specialists say some of these perks are relics of a time gone by, when executives had long lists of special benefits, along with massive exit pay packages when they retired or sold their companies.
Except they are still getting them.
These days, boards are looking for directors with especially strong backbones to serve on their compensation committees and take a harder look at pay and perks. Still, these benefits are not easy to take away....
--more--"
Liberty Mutual literally looking down you and your well-being:
"Liberty Mutual’s new Boston tower opening soon" by Casey Ross | Globe Staff, June 26, 2013
On the 22d floor, the views from Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.’s new office tower in the Back Bay cut in every direction. There are stunning scenes of the Charles River and Boston Harbor, and an equally mesmerizing glimpse of Columbus Avenue as it slices through the South End.
It is a compelling perch from which to view a growing city.
Liberty Mutual is a company recently criticized for showering its executives with extravagant pay and perks, but its tower is hardly bedecked with gold-rimmed opulence....
The $300 million tower was built with millions in public aid, including investment tax credits potentially worth $22.5 million from the state and $24 million in property tax breaks from the city.
For a company that calls Massachusetts home and made nearly a billion dollars as they handed out raises and the rest. Did they really "need" the help?
And you wonder why I'm sour on the looting $cheme that we call government in 21st-century AmeriKa?
Those subsidies came as Liberty Mutual revealed it had paid its former chief executive, Edmund F. “Ted” Kelly, $50 million a year, making him among the most highly paid corporate bosses in the country.
Kelly’s compensation irked watchdog groups and policyholders because Liberty Mutual is mutually owned, a structure under which surplus profits are typically distributed to customers as dividends or invested in the company. Kelly, who led a threefold revenue increase at Liberty Mutual, is leaving this year after two decades....
Liberty Mutual emphasized that the tower’s construction created 500 jobs and will generate $70 million in real estate taxes for the city over the next 20 years. The company employs 4,900 people in Massachusetts, including more than 3,100 in Boston....
Patting themselves on the back while picking taxpayers (and rate payers) pockets.
Sean Murphy, director of real estate for Liberty Mutual., said the new glass footbridge over Stuart Street, connecting the new tower to an older structure, is one of the executives’ favorite new elements — even though during planning it drew criticism as something that would take foot traffic off the street below....
Yeah, that will help the trickle-down effect. The reason the execs like it is so they won't have to go down to the street and possibly bump into a member of the rabble.
--more--"
"Liberty Mutual’s Ted Kelly stepping down as chairman" by Taryn Luna | Globe Correspondent, April 10, 2013
Edmund F. “Ted” Kelly, who led Liberty Mutual Group to a threefold revenue increase while earning some $200 million in his last four years as chief executive, will step down as chairman this summer and end more than two decades with the company, the Boston insurer said Wednesday....
Kelly became the source of controversy last year when state insurance filings revealed he received nearly $50 million a year from 2008 to 2010.
The company defended the pay, saying that it reflected Kelly’s success in transforming Liberty Mutual from a struggling insurer to a Fortune 100 company. Liberty Mutual officials also said regulatory filings skewed Kelly’s pay because they included long-term incentives that Kelly earned over the course of his career but cashed in near the end of his tenure.
Liberty Mutual is a mutual company, owned by its policyholders, and Attorney General Martha Coakley questioned why a company would increase rates on its policyholders at the same time it boosted a top executive’s pay to roughly $200 million in four years.
Ooooooooh!! They increased rates!
The pay also sparked criticism from government watchdogs, irked that Liberty Mutual received $46.5 million in state and local tax incentives in 2010 to build a tower near its Back Bay headquarters and create 600 jobs.
The uproar over Kelly’s pay led the Legislature last year to require mutual insurers based in Massachusetts to either post executive pay details on their public website or mail the information to policyholders.
Kelly earned roughly $400,000 a year as chairman. Company spokesman John Cusolito said Kelly will relinquish access to company jets and other perks when he steps down.
Who knows what his severance and pension payments are going to be.
The Irish native graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and earned a PhD in mathematics at MIT. He worked with Aetna Life and Casualty Co. for 18 years before joining Liberty Mutual, then a struggling firm that depended heavily on workers’ compensation business.
They used to help workers, huh? And there was no money in it?
Kelly diversified the business and expanded primarily through acquisitions, more than doubling its workforce and number of offices. Liberty Mutual had more than $34 billion in annual sales in 2011, Kelly’s last year as chief executive, up from $11 billion in 1998, his first year as CEO.
Kelly’s most contentious move came more than a decade ago, when he created a holding company for Liberty Mutual, which allowed the company to sell a minority stake in subsidiaries to outside investors without compensating policyholders. The change also made it more difficult to track the pay of Liberty Mutual executives.
If it wasn't all legal I'd say it looks like looting.
--more--"
Also see: Liberty Mutual will up charitable giving
You can thank the rate hikes.
Meanwhile, over at Mass. Mutual:
"Mass. Mutual "MassMutual accused of holding dividends; Lawsuits say insurer kept millions from clients" by Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, September 04, 2012
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is fighting several lawsuits accusing the Springfield life insurer of shorting policyholders on dividends and preventing many of them from voting for directors.
The suits, recently filed in federal court in Massachusetts, raise questions about the company’s obligations to customers under state law and the language in their policies. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status.
Unlike companies that are owned by shareholders, MassMutual is mutually owned by its policyholders, giving customers the right to vote in annual meetings and to receive part of the company’s profit in the form of dividends.
Two suits filed by the same law firms allege that MassMutual retained millions of dollars in profits it should have disbursed to policyholders over the past decade.
We call it stealing.
MassMutual is permitted to keep a portion of its profits in reserve to help cover possible claims or to invest in its business, but it is supposed to return the rest to policyholders.
The lawsuits allege MassMutual sidestepped the requirement, however, by understating the amount in its surplus fund and thus owes more than $5 million in dividends to more than 2 million policyholders....
We call that lying.
--more--"
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is fighting several lawsuits accusing the Springfield life insurer of shorting policyholders on dividends and preventing many of them from voting for directors.
The suits, recently filed in federal court in Massachusetts, raise questions about the company’s obligations to customers under state law and the language in their policies. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status.
Unlike companies that are owned by shareholders, MassMutual is mutually owned by its policyholders, giving customers the right to vote in annual meetings and to receive part of the company’s profit in the form of dividends.
Two suits filed by the same law firms allege that MassMutual retained millions of dollars in profits it should have disbursed to policyholders over the past decade.
We call it stealing.
MassMutual is permitted to keep a portion of its profits in reserve to help cover possible claims or to invest in its business, but it is supposed to return the rest to policyholders.
The lawsuits allege MassMutual sidestepped the requirement, however, by understating the amount in its surplus fund and thus owes more than $5 million in dividends to more than 2 million policyholders....
We call that lying.
--more--"
Also see: Time For Buffett
For $ome, yeah.
