Features
Part of What separates strong executive net worth from average is a reading order that works
Executive net worth updates, organised by date
Executive net worth updates and what a changed figure means: distinguishing new disclosure, a market move, a restatement and a compiler simply editing a page.
A published figure changes. The interesting question is why, and there are four possible reasons that look identical on the page. Only one of them is news. Learning to tell them apart is more useful than any individual number, because it applies to every update you will ever see.
What to take away
- A changed number can mean new evidence, a market move, a correction, or nothing.
- Filings arrive on a schedule, so most changes are calendar events, not news.
- A revision with no note attached destroys the reader's ability to check anything.
The four reasons a figure moves
New disclosure. A company filed something. This is the only category that adds information, and it is datable: the filing has a date, the document exists, and anyone can retrieve it through the commission's EDGAR full text search.
Repricing. Nothing about the person changed. Shares they were already known to hold are worth more or less than they were last week. The overwhelming majority of movement in published figures for company officers is this, and it is a fact about a market rather than about a person.
Correction. The earlier figure was wrong. Perhaps the same shares were counted twice, or a grant value was read as cash, or a namesake was merged in. Corrections are the most valuable updates and the least often labeled.
Editorial refresh. Somebody updated a page. A year was changed in the title, a number was nudged toward what other pages say, and nothing was re-derived. This is the most common reason of the four.
An article that does not say which of these happened has told you a number changed and nothing else.
The disclosure calendar
Filings do not arrive continuously. Compensation tables appear in the annual proxy statement, which is described in the glossary entry on proxy statement. Insider transactions are reported promptly after they happen, which the entry on Form 4 explains. Periodic reports arrive quarterly and annually.
This calendar has a consequence worth internalising. A burst of executive pay coverage in a given season is usually a reporting season rather than a change in anybody's circumstances. The figures were set months earlier; the documents simply became public at the same time.
How to read an update honestly
| What the update says | What to check | What it usually turns out to be |
|---|---|---|
| A figure rose sharply | Whether a filing appeared that week | A share price move |
| A figure fell sharply | The same | A share price move |
| A new figure with no date | Any named document | An editorial refresh |
| A figure changed and the old one vanished | Whether a correction is noted | A silent correction |
| A rank changed | Whether this person's figure moved, or someone else's | Somebody else moved |
The last row catches something people miss. Rank is relative, so a person can drop several places without anything about them changing at all. In a ranked table the reader cannot tell whose figure moved, which is one of several reasons the format hides more than it shows, as set out on richest rankings.
The correction standard worth holding to
A responsible revision states what changed, when, and why, and preserves the earlier state so a reader can see the difference. That is ordinary practice in any field that publishes numbers, and it is exactly what a reader needs in order to distinguish a correction from a drift.
The alternative is what the genre mostly does: overwrite quietly and leave the page looking as though it was always right. After a few cycles the history is gone, the current figure looks settled, and nobody can reconstruct where it came from. The mechanics behind that inheritance are on estimate methodology.
What is genuinely worth updating
Structural things, and they change slowly. What the disclosure rules require. What a category of award means and when it is valued. How the components fit together, which is covered on executive net worth. How terms are negotiated and reported across employment generally, which is on contracts and salaries.
Pages about mechanism age well. Pages about figures age the day they are published, and updating them mostly means changing the date.
Common questions
How often should a figure about a person be updated?
If it is derived from a filing, when a new filing appears, and the update should name it. If it is derived from other articles, no update schedule saves it, because refreshing an inherited number produces a newer inherited number.
Does a year in the title mean the figure was checked this year?
It usually means the page was published or edited this year. Those are different claims and only one of them is being made.
If a correction is not marked, is the new figure more reliable?
You cannot tell, and that is the problem. An unmarked change could be a genuine fix or a drift toward what other pages say. Without a note the reader has no way to distinguish them.
