Employers have traditionally used broad-based employee benefit programs to provide tax-sheltered compensation to their executives. Today, however, changes in federal tax policy have resulted in increasingly strict limits on the benefits payable from these plans. Legislation has also eliminated some of the tax advantages associated with plan distributions. As a result, many employers have created supplemental benefit programs to provide benefits for their executives. The Handbook of Executive Benefits helps practitioners design and implement benefit programs that meet corporate objectives as well as the needs of individual executives. Benefits and financial professionals will find descriptions of the legislative considerations that have helped shape the development and design of executive retirement and health and welfare benefit programs; identification of the various employer objectives served by supplemental executive benefit arrangements; overviews of current practices in executive benefit design, including techniques to secure the long-term promises made outside the scope of broad-based benefit plans; and key topics such as accounting and securities law considerations, golden parachutes, special problems faced by tax-exempt employers, and the issues facing executives in retirement. The Handbook of Executive Benefits is an authoritative resource and serves as the ultimate guide to designing and managing an effective supplemental benefit program.
