Sunday, August 4, 2019

West Des Moines, Iowa-Based Life Insurance Company American Equity Investment Life's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Very Clean, Blistering 25.0% Per Year During the Past 10 Years (2009-2018)

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 7th Iowa Company I am addressing is American Equity Investment Life.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows American Equity Investment Life's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive full years of employment for the most recent ten years. 

American Equity Investment Life's Top-Tier Executive Average Pay Raise was a very clean, blistering 25.0% per year for the last ten years, the third highest of the seven Iowa Companies I have addressed so far.
  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. Meredith Corp +11.6% per year for the past ten years
  7. Rockwell Collins +9.0% per year for the past ten years
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
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
American Equity Investment 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
John Matovina CEO       3,553       2,738       2,738       1,461       1,461       1,600       1,600       1,471       1,471       1,333
Ted Johnson CFO       1,950       1,656       1,656       1,011       1,011       1,100       1,100          978          978          841
Ronald Grensteiner EVP       1,859       1,692       1,692       1,029       1,029       1,087       1,087          943          943          848
Jeffrey Lorenzen Chief Investment Officer       1,681       1,445       1,445          902  N/A   N/A 
Renee Montz General Counsel       1,627       1,355       1,355          734  N/A   N/A 
David Noble Retired Executive Chairman  N/A   N/A        1,869       1,724       1,724       1,606
Debra Richardson Retired EVP          821       1,160       1,160       1,077       1,077          978
 Totals      10,670       8,886       8,886       5,137       4,322       4,947       6,816       6,193       6,193       5,606
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 20.1% 73.0% -12.6% 10.1% 10.5%
 5 Year Average Per Year % Change 20.2%
FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
American Equity Investment Life 2013 2012 2012 2011 2011 2010 2010 2009 2009 2008
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
John Matovina CEO       1,333          867          867          931          931       1,242       1,242          604          604          442
Ted Johnson CFO          841          494          494          481          481          492  N/A   N/A     
Ronald Grensteiner EVP          848          596          596          702          702       1,002       1,002          367          367          187
Jeffrey Lorenzen Chief Investment Officer
Renee Montz General Counsel
David Noble Retired Executive Chairman       1,606       1,177       1,177       1,683       1,683       1,534       1,534          720          720          587
Debra Richardson Retired EVP          978          698          698          832          832       1,204       1,204          645          645          559
Wendy Waugaman Former CEO  N/A   N/A        1,136       1,404       1,404          697          697          561
James Gerlach EVP          405          412
 Totals        5,606       3,832       3,832       4,629       5,765       6,878       6,386       3,033       3,438       2,748
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 46.3% -17.2% -16.2% 110.6% 25.1%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 29.7%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change 25.0%



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