Devil in the Details

As the country embarks on an extended debate about privitizing portions of social security (thereby taking the "security" out of the program), I wondered of WH financial advisors were thinking about Charles Noski as their corporate poster child. Please enjoy the following tidbit culled from public disclosure documents, and posted a few days ago on the always highly informative footnoted.org by Michelle Leder (see the sidebar):

Most of us would probably feel pretty lucky if, after a lifetime of working, we've been able to put aside a little nest egg to see us through our retirement. But when you're 51 and have already retired three times from three large companies and have either already collected or are poised to collect a hefty retirement package and generous stock options, that takes more than luck. That takes phenomenally good planning. Two days ago, Northrop Grumman (NOC) announced that its CFO, Charles Noski, who only joined the company at the end of 2003, would be leaving soon, after the company's 10-K was filed. Northrop's press release said that Noski was leaving to pursue "other personal and professional interests." The company didn't note the severance arrangements, but given that Noski's employment contract didn't expire until December 2008, he's likely to collect several million dollars. That's in addition to the retirement package that Noski, who had been a senior executive at AT&T (T) at the time that company's Broadband unit was sold to Comcast (CMCSA), collected though it's not entirely clear from the filings exactly how much he received. More than a few bucks, to be sure since his signing bonus alone was about $3.5 million, not including stock options. And then there's the retirement from Hughes Electronics, the former divison of GM (GM). Though it's hard to find specifics on that one too, it's a pretty safe bet that he wound up with more than a gold watch and a pat on the back.