February 10, 2010
Compensation Consultants: Following in the Footsteps of Auditors?
– Paul Hodgson, The Corporate Library
Below is something I recently blogged on The Corporate Library’s blog:
The news that Hewitt has spun off its compensation consultancy business, the news that Ira Kay left Watson Wyatt to start his own compensation boutique seem to be at odds with the fact that Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt have joined forces to form some kind of super-consultancy. One thing is sure. This is all a reaction to the news that fees will have to be disclosed in many instances. Not only that but “other work” performed by a consultant beyond its executive compensation work for the board will also have to be disclosed. See this blog post for details.
With this in mind one would have expected all the comp consultants to be divesting like mad, just like the auditors did when consultancy work for the companies they audited was banned in Sox. Unless of course, the merger of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt into Towers Watson is prequel to divesting the now super-comp-consultancy.
What’s it going to be called?
Perrin Wyatt?