The end of a year and beginning of the next generally starts the countdown to the public company proxy season. But before moving into 2018, registrants would be well served by first looking back to the guidance that came out of the SEC at the end of 2017.
During the last quarter, the SEC staff had their hands full preparing for new standards impacting registrants’ filings this year, keeping pace with tax reform, tweaking the shareholder proposal process and corralling a burgeoning cryptocurrency market.
Executive compensation, corporate governance, shareholder engagement and other rule changes and rulemakings for public companies are highlighted in the 2016 Proxy Season Checklist. The list discusses important developments that will affect the upcoming and future proxy seasons, and offers suggestions on how to prepare for them.
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) proposals would have auditors reading the employment and compensation contracts of corporate leaders and, possibly, forcing changes to comp programs due to unacceptable risks of material restatement.