Sunday, August 4, 2019

Des Moines, Iowa-Based (Legally Headquartered in Cayman Islands) Annuity and Life Insurance Company FGL Holdings Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Completely Off-the-Charts 148.2% Per Year During Its Two-Year (2017 and 2018) Legal Existence. Des Moines, Iowa-Based Annuity and Life Insurance Company FGL Holdings and Its Predecessor Company Fidelity & Guaranty Life Combined Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was an Off-the-Charts 50.2% Per Year During the Six Years (2013-2018) Since Its 2013 IPO.

After the second Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate held in Detroit where Cory Booker was the standout performer, where several other non-top-tier candidates performed exceptionally well especially Steve Bullock and where most of the top-tier candidates stumbled, I now will turn my attention to the early primary States and start with Iowa.

The key issue to Iowa citizens should be the huge and continuing Income Inequality Expansion which is at the core of many critical problems the US faces.

Thus I will be doing research and making posts on the average pay raise per year that the Top-Tier Executives of the larger Iowa Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.

The 9th Iowa Company I am addressing is FGL Holdings.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows FGL Holdings Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive substantially full years of employment for the most recent two years that it has legally been in existence so far. 

FGL Holdings Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was a Completely Off-the-Charts 148.2% per year for the last two years, the very highest of the nine Iowa Companies I have addressed so far

  1. FGL Holdings +148.2% per year for the past two years
    1. Athene Holding Ltd +116.8% per year for the past three years
    2. Workiva +71.6% per year for the past five years
    3. American Equity Investment Life +25.0% per year for the past ten years
    4. Casey's General Stores +24.2% per year for the past ten years
    5. Principal Financial Group +14.4% per year for the past ten years
    6. Heartland Financial USA +13.8% per year for the past ten years
    7. Meredith Corp +11.6% per year for the past ten years
    8. Rockwell Collins +9.0% per year for the past ten years
    The combined FGL Holdings and its Predecessor Company Fidelity & Guaranty Life Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was an Off-the-Charts 50.2% per year for the six years (2013-2018) since its IPO in 2013.

    The only highly effective US Government law enacted by either party in the past decade that has substantially reduced income inequality expansion is Obamacare and the political right is continually trying to repeal and replace it and three of the top four Democratic Presidential candidates now leading in the polls are effectively running as their principal issue to do in essence precisely the same thing ..... repeal and replace Obamacare ..... but to do it with either a pure or a version of Medicare For All.  The pure Medicare For All advocated by both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and which was co-sponsored in a US Senate bill by Kamala Harris is off-the-charts enormously expensive and would take up an enormous amount of wasted time with no positive result since it has no chance of getting passed legislatively.  Just given their near-sighted stance on Medicare For All, if the Democratic nominee is any of the three of them, it will be extremely difficult for any of them to beat Trump in the general election.  It is that simple. 

    My objective is to get a better handle on just why the US and particularly here Iowa has such massive continuing Income Inequality Expansion ..... it appears to be predominantly about the relative long-term annual pay raise percentages for the executives of a Company vs the many non-executives employees of a Company, coupled with the stock price appreciation subsequent to the time the company executives were rewarded in their pay with stock equity compensation.

    To fix Income Inequality driven mainly by Company and its Board of Director choices on Percentage Annual Pay Raises, the US Government should step in and pass wisely-designed, simple but effective Fair Pay Raise Income Inequality Narrowing Company tax incentives for rewarding non-executive employees with fair pay increases ..... the carrot ..... and Company tax disincentives for rewarding executive employees with clearly excessively high pay increases ..... the stick.  I am certain ..... it is simple math ..... that this tax proposal would be very effective in substantially reducing the huge income inequality expansion that has occurred for decades in annual percentage pay raises between company executives and the rest of the company employees. 

    And the continuing annual net tax revenues raised by the US Government here should be set up in a separate fund to be used only for wise additional income inequality narrowing initiatives.  This fund should be run by an outside group made up entirely of minorities harmed the most by Income Inequality Expansion of the past decades  .....all women, all blacks, all Latinos, all other non-white people, all past and present union members, all LGBTQ, all non-employee contract workers and all middle and lower income people of all ages, including those retired.

    Also, the US Government should require all US Corporate Boards to include at least one worker representative and to exclude any Company Executive.

    FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
    FGL Holdings and Its Predecessor  Dec Sept Sept Sept Sept Sept Sept Sept Sept Sept
    Company Fidelity & Guaranty Life 2018 2017 2017 2016 2016 2015 2015 2014 2014 2013
    Top-Tier Total Total Total Total Total Total Total Total Total Total
    Executive Comp Comp Comp Comp Comp Comp Comp Comp Comp Comp
    $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s $ 000s
    Christopher Littlefield CEO     14,603       4,837       4,837       2,821       2,821       3,377
    Dennis Vigneau CFO       6,012       2,664       2,664          795          795          911  N/A   N/A 
    Eric Marhoun General Counsel       2,841       1,807       1,807          596          596          781          781       1,971  N/A   N/A 
    John Phelps Chief Distribution Officer  N/A   N/A 
    John Currier Chief Actuary  N/A   N/A 
    Roseanne Boehm SVP Human Resources       1,652          462  N/A   N/A 
    Christopher Fleming Operations&Technology       1,693          503  N/A   N/A 
    Rajesh Krishnan Chief Investment Officer              633          761          761       2,042       2,042          937
    John O'Shaughnessy Business Development          522          658          658       1,875       1,875          790
    Leland Launer Former CEO  N/A   N/A            4,273       3,428
    Wendy Young Chief Risk Officer       1,773          475
                   
     Totals      23,456       9,308     12,653       5,177       5,367       6,488       2,200       5,888       9,963       5,630
    Annual % Change vs Prior Year 152.0% 144.4% -17.3% -62.6% 77.0%
    FGL Holdings
    ….. 2 Year Avg Per Year % Change 148.2%
    FYE FYE
    FGL Holdings and Its Predecessor Sept Sept
    Company Fidelity & Guaranty Life  2013 2012
    Top-Tier Total Total
    Executive Comp Comp
    $ 000s $ 000s
    Rajesh Krishnan Chief Investment Officer          937       1,138
    John O'Shaughnessy Business Development          790       1,012
    Leland Launer Former CEO       3,428       2,258
    Wendy Young Chief Risk Officer          475          449
    John Phelps Chief Distribution Officer          750       1,056
     Totals        6,380       5,913
    Annual % Change vs Prior Year 7.9%
    FGL Holdings and Its Predecessor Co
    …..Fidelity & Guaranty Life 
    ………. 6 Year Average Per Year % Change 50.2%