Shareholder Approval of Equity Incentive Plan; Has It Been Five Years?

Most equity incentive plans have a number of different shareholder-approved business criteria for setting performance goals and allow the compensation committee to select the criteria each year. This practice generally requires re-approval of the goals by the shareholders under Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m) whenever the committee makes a material change to the criteria. If the committee has not made any material changes to the performance criteria but retains discretion to select the performance targets from year-to-year, shareholders generally will need to reapprove the criteria every five years under Code Section 162(m).

If shareholder approval last occurred in 2009, then it is time to prepare for re-approval in 2014. This is also a good time to consider if an amendment is needed to increase the authorized share pool.