Share Plans & Incentives - What Happens if the Employee Leaves?

Introduction

Employee share plans and bonus incentives are intended to act as a retention tool and create a pain point to deter attrition. The share plan rules and incentive award documents should prescribe what happens when the employment ends and can provide for use of discretion in some scenarios.

Whether the cessation of employment is in the context of firing the CEO for misconduct, a redundancy round, the death of an employee, voluntary resignation or otherwise, there are many considerations and impacts to navigate when it comes to assessing the treatment of various share plan and reward elements in both a quoted and private company scenario.

This webinar covers the wide-ranging impact of employment termination where this intersects reward provision and looks at this from the opposing perspectives of (i) an advisor to the corporate entity/group and (ii) an advisor to the employee.

Attendees will gain a deeper understanding and update on the relevant legislative aspects, corporate governance considerations, case law, tax treatment, commercial negotiating factors, and practicalities that can arise. The webinar will share insight on how to avoid potential pitfalls and save value.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The documentation - key terms to review
• Typical leaver treatment - good, bad, intermediate and good that becomes bad
• Why different share plans and awards have different treatment
• The negotiables - For employer and employee, what are the key areas of focus when bargaining for a settlement agreement related to employment termination
• Practicalities - how to save value if choice of termination date is within your control and other practical tips relating to managing reward elements of termination
• Corporate governance - malus and clawback and other pay governance factors that impact the treatment of executive reward components when employment ceases
• Use of discretion - navigating a complex area
• Good Leavers - How to improve tax outcomes and mitigate administrative headaches

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Monday 18th August 2025

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 1,700+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.