[apendleton]

Without speaking to this particular grandfather clause, I think in general these kinds of clauses deal with the fact that a new policy, good or bad, might cause people to design their incentive structures differently, and they want to avoid screwing over people who in good faith designed their structures to work best under the old system, and instead give them time to make adjustments.

[alistairSH]

What irks me is that tax policy is such that complicated incentive programs used to defer compensation and tax obligation are a thing in the first place.

[sokoloff]

Deferred compensation plans are not solely to manage or modify tax treatment of compensation.

As a long-term shareholder, I want the CEO, board, and senior executive compensation to be tied to long term shareholder value creation. By far the easiest way to do that is to create a deferred compensation plan that ties their financial outcome to that of a long-term shareholder.

If I win big holding their shares, I want them to win big.

If they just match the market, they should get paid something for their time, but not anything exceptional.

[jdavis703]

ISOs aren't really a tax dodge. They're designed to encourage employees and management to put extra work and thought in to the company they're building. I can tell you if I received the value of my ISOs in cash I would not come in to work early and leave late in the hope of a payoff sometime in the future. Unless you're working at a company doing something truly interesting, I think most employees would fall in to my camp.