The Advisors' Blog

In mid-January, ISS-Corporate announced the release of a report on CEO perks covering fiscal 2024, which represented a five-year high in terms of the number of S&P 500 companies reporting at least one perk (70%). The number of Russell 3000 companies providing at least one perk stayed steady at 43%. The announcement gives more detail on personal use of corporate jets and personal security services.

Personal use of corporate aircraft remains among the most common perquisites provided to CEOs, the study found. In Fiscal Year 2024, more than 41 percent of S&P 500 CEOs were provided this benefit, reaching a new peak and continuing a positive trend exhibited in recent years; median value of the perquisite of use of corporate aircraft decreased slightly from the previous year to $149,379. For Russell 3000 companies (excluding companies included in the S&P 500), corporate aircraft usage began to stall in 2024, experiencing a minor drop in prevalence to 7.9 percent.

The prevalence of security perquisites continues to increase for the S&P 500 and Russell 3000, with the largest annual increases in prevalence seen in 2024 for both indexes. The prevalence of security benefits among S&P 500 companies now stands at a five-year high, with 22.5 percent of companies offering the perk. Adoption rates in the remaining Russell 3000 companies remain low at just 2.7 percent of the index but nevertheless increased significantly in 2024.

The report notes that security spend has definitely increased again in fiscal 2025. While the report found that greater perks correlated with lower say-on-pay outcomes, investors seemed focused on outliers that fail to provide supporting disclosure. As Liz recently shared, ISS’s FAQ updates clarify that ISS is unlikely to raise significant concerns for relatively high executive security-related perks, as long as the company discloses a reasonable rationale (like an internal or third-party assessment) and a broad description of the security program and its connection to shareholder interests.

– Meredith Ervine