Fortress Investment Group LLC gave four of its top executives $63 million in compensation last year. As part of the package, the first publicly traded private-equity and hedge-fund firm is paying to help manage their fortunes.
Principals Wesley Edens, Peter Briger, Randal Nardone and Michael Novogratz were given a combined $902,496 in 2012 and 2013 for expenses connected with their “family office” staff, according to filings from Fortress. The number reflects non-cash allocations for the use of Fortress offices and equipment by family office employees, said Gordon Runte, a spokesman for the New York-based money manager.
Covering costs for family offices, which oversee the assets of the wealthy, is rare for publicly-traded companies, and highlights some of the benefits beyond cash and stock that are paid to some of the world’s richest executives. Perks awarded to Fortress competitors include private jet planes, personal security and tax planning. KKR & Co. pays for staff who handle personal matters for its billionaire CEOs.
“Why not throw in the kids’ private tuitions?,” said Graef Crystal, a compensation expert and consultant to Bloomberg News. “Where is the line between your wallet and the company’s?”
There are various items that show up in the miscellaneous column under executive compensation packages, he said. “That one is a new one,” he said of family office expenses.
Runte said the principals of Fortress cover all of the compensation and benefits of the employees serving in family office roles.
Overhead Costs
“The expenses disclosed in our proxy relate to the allocation of corporate overhead costs to these employees -- including occupancy and IT costs,” he said. “To be clear, most of these costs would be incurred by Fortress, even in the absence of employees serving in family office roles.”
The Fortress executives became billionaires in the company’s 2007 initial public offering, when the company sold shares for $18.50 apiece. The stock has slumped more than 70 percent since the IPO, and declined 17 percent this year to $7.07 as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen 8.8 percent.
Fortress paid Briger $269,327 in 2012 and 2013 combined for expenses related to family office employees, the filings show. Edens was compensated $225,438; Nardone got $150,292 and Novogratz received $257,439 over the same time period for the family-office costs.
Kravis, Roberts
Representatives for Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP and KKR. said the firms don’t cover family office costs for their executives.
KKR, which has a market capitalization almost six times that of Fortress, gave its co-CEO Henry Kravis $370,425 for “certain personnel who administer personal matters” and $20,000 related to tax-preparation fees in 2013, according to a filing. Its other CEO, George Roberts, was compensated $306,259 for staff attending to personal matters and also $20,000 for tax-preparation services. Over 2012 and 2013, the expense for personnel was $953,548.
Most of Fortress’s competitors pay their executives for travel and security expenses, or offer other benefits that vary greatly in amount. Carlyle paid co-founder David Rubenstein $4.4 million for business travel last year.
Security costs for Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC founder Dan Och were more than $2.3 million for 2012 and 2013. The Och-Ziff proxy states that the services are “appropriate business expenses” rather than personal benefits for Och. In comparison, Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., was paid about $222,000 for security for the two years.
Sports Tickets
Apollo Global Management LLC’s Leon Black got $12,400 for sports tickets in 2012.
Spokesmen for Apollo, Oaktree Capital Group LLC, Och-Ziff and Ares Management LP declined to comment.
About 48 percent of Fortune 100 companies reported compensating executives for financial planning and other professional services in 2012, according to Equilar Inc. The median amount was about $12,500, which was the lowest since 2008.
“We’ve seen an overall decline in perks for executives,” said Aaron Boyd, director of governance research at Equilar, a Redwood City, California-based company that compiles data on executive pay. “The ones that have gone away are those where the company has a difficult time explaining how the perk benefits the company overall, such as country club memberships.”
Hedge Fund Pays Executives For Expenses To Manage Fortunes
September 19, 2014
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