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Agency theory is used in a study to examine whether the culture of nations influence corporate governance relating to the offer of employee incentives.

With the bankruptcy of Enron and the accompanying loss of pension benefits of its employees, pensions have recently received significant press. Accounting for pension plan obligations, for defined benefit plans in particular, requires companies to make assumptions regarding discount rates, projected salary increases, and expected long-term return on plan assets. Such assumptions, in turn, determine the funding status of the pension plan and the annual pension expense. Higher assumed discount rates reduce the pension obligation, enhance the funding status of the plan, and reduce any lump-sum payments. Higher expected return on assets reduces the current pension expense. This study investigates the relationship between pension plan assumptions and the funding status of a pension plan. The results reveal that companies with pension plans that are more fully funded assume higher discount rates and expected long-term return on assets than do companies with less funded plans. The effect of these assumptions is that higher discount rate assumptions lead to better funding status, and higher expected long-term rates of return on assets partially offset the pension expense impacts of these higher discount rate assumptions. We are doubtful that more funded plans collectively should be assuming higher discount rates and expected long-term return on plan assets, especially since the actual return on plan assets investigated did not correlate with these assumptions.

ARKANSAS BUSINESS LIST: PUBLIC COS. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION Ranked by total compensation in 2001 Total 2001 Executive, Title Compensation/ Company 2000 Compensation 1 Wayne Garrison, COB $11,118,444 J.B. Hunt Transport $375,000 [...]

Companies are increasingly outsourcing their employee benefit plans and expect a high level of service and commitment. Some of the latest services available are discussed.

The latest trends in administrative outsourcing are discussed, including those relating to employee benefits management.

Results of a survey into the benefits of medical savings account options for large- and medium-sized company's employee benefit plans are presented.

Issues are discussed concerning the hiring of outsourcing partners for employee benefit plans.

A checklist of questions for companies planning to outsource the delivery of their main employee benefit plans to ask prospective partners is provided. Includes an outsourcing case study.

The death of the company car has long been predicted but there is no evidence of its demise, despite government disincentives. It is estimated that some 50% of the 2.17 million new cars sold in the UK in 1997 were company sales, with the top 10 contract-hire companies having a combined fleet of 570,000, up 16% from 1996. The company car concept has become part of Britain's way of life and while its future may be doomed, the company car is likely to continue to dominate the new car market in the short-term.

A study was conducted to determine the differences between US and Taiwanese firms in terms of the measurement, evaluation and rewarding profit center managers. Four research propositions were made. The first states that Taiwanese firms provide smaller monetary rewards based on individual performance. The second proposition holds that Taiwanese firms are more prone to basing performance-based rewards on group performance rather than individual performance. The third claims that Taiwanese firms use long-term incentives less often. Lastly, it is proposed that performance evaluations of profit center managers in Taiwanese firms are more subjective. Of the four, only the third proposition was supported. Managers' education and experience, their attitudes toward the stock market, the company's stage and pattern of growth, the labor force mobility in the country, type of business and the use of consultants were all found to explain the differences.

The advantages of a mixed program that combines the growth possibilities of a defined contribution plan with the security of a defined benefit plan are examined. Companies must rethink their retirement benefit planning in certain degree that acknowledges the longer term strategic results of cutting back for the purpose of short-term financial gains.

Employers are unwilling to commit themselves to family-care policies because they think that the work output cannot compensate for company costs and liability. In actuality, expenditures in the implementation of health-care benefits are lower that what most companies expect. Moreover, family-care policies boost employee morale, increase productivity and generate increased leverage in hiring and retaining personnel., Some companies claim that cost and liability concerns prevent them from adopting family care policies. However, there are three underlying stereotypes that usually dominate this type of reasoning. The most [...]

Employers are reducing retiree health benefit coverage because of rising medical care costs, altered postemployment benefit accounting rules and increasing numbers of retirees. A survey by A. Foster Higgins and Company Inc. of 1,185 employers found 59% surveyed believe in a employer-retiree shared responsibility system. Of employers surveyed, 32% want to enlarge retiree contributions. Other proposals include enlarging deductibles, modifying benefit plans' coordination with Medicare and fixed-dollar amount plans. Also at issue is Financial Accounting Standard 106 which, starting in 1993, demands that retiree health benefit liabilities accumulate as 'expense against earnings' from date of hire.

This discussion of retiree benefits finds that currently, companies want to cut costs and not carry liabilities on their books, so they are looking for ways to reduce these liabilities. Efforts to reduce liabilities come as premiums for health care are soaring. Among the strategies being used by companies to juggle these issues are to eliminate or modify retiree benefits; use a defined contribution approach; cap subsidies; and turn to Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

British corporations and foreign multinationals have been faced with the problem of providing pensions for their new executives since 1989. At that time, the UK government imposed an earnings cap which subsequently limited the amount of money that a corporation can provide for pension benefits. Companies are now contributing to Funded Unnaproved Retirement Benefit Schemes, which make employees liable for tax but exempts them from paying taxes on benefit distribution upon retirement.

Quality health care costs big bucks, and many employers are exploring managed care as a means of controlling rising benefit costs. In Utah, 58 percent of people enrolled in health [...]

Agency theory is used to examine whether rewarding the managers help enhance their performance in a corporate governance.

Boosting his productivity Is showering the boss with perks good for shareholders? NOTHING has come to embody corporate greed like executive perks: the corporate jets, chauffeured limousines and country-club memberships [...]

Metro Detroit businesses are going above and beyond the call of duty to aid workers in the National Guard and Reserve as the military call-up intensifies. Some major employers, including [...]

In 1987 Congress passed a bill that contributed significantly to the underfunding disaster confronting many defined benefit pension plans today. In December of that year, Congress passed an omnibus budget [...]

By Paul Tinslay THE last time I was asked to write a wish list it began 'Dear Santa', and on that occasion I did actually get some of the things [...]

For the seventh year in a row, the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI), Tempe, Ariz., has conducted a survey of employers to assess what drug benefits they are offering their [...]

Byline: MICHAEL PRINCE NEW YORK-More employers should dip their toes in the water and get into the pool of companies adopting consumer-driven health care plans, a trio of benefit managers [...]

WASHINGTON - When Congress passed sweeping accounting legislation last month to restore investor confidence in the stock market, lawmakers might have missed an opportunity to fix what some experts say [...]

Just when you thought it was safe to read a corporate earnings statement, financial analysts say beware the pension plan. One national study estimates that overly optimistic accounting recognition of [...]

Q: How can good governance reduce the level of risk in my company's benefit plans? A: This question comes from the vp-human resources at a Fortune 500 company. The company [...]

Only 43 percent of workers are satisfied with their health plans, according to a recent Watson Wyatt survey of 10,000 employees at 18 companies. The survey also found that only [...]

Thousands of high tech workers have become familiar with a word they hadn't heard much during the tech boom: severance. Human resources managers say severance packages -- typically lasting one [...]

NEW YORK -- In an attempt to attract new talent and retain the best and brightest employees, more defined contribution plan sponsors are enriching their matching contributions, according to a [...]

Pets in the workplace? Pet walking and concierge services? On-site massages? Game rooms? Gourmet kitchens and chefs on-site? Dry cleaning, car detailing and mobile dentists? Free Starbucks coffee, candy, soda [...]

Much-touted health care option hasn't been embraced locally It has been hailed in the press as the future of health care, the solution to the backlash of managed care and [...]

The Economic Value of Physically Fit Employees Most company owners and executives do not exercise on a regular basis, so it is not surprising that most companies do not sanction [...]

Employer tips for cutting premiums: Review your plans to see whether you need all of the coverage and riders you are carrying. Shop the market to compare rates at the [...]