A few months ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a long-awaited set of rules on pay versus performance disclosure requirements. Additionally, in late October the SEC adopted a secondary set of new rules that require public companies to claw back current or former executives' erroneously awarded incentive-based compensation.

Managing Director Brennan Rittenhouse speaks to Accounting Today on the present-day expectations regarding pay versus performance disclosure changes: "The bigger impact we'll see here is on smaller to medium-size public companies that either aren't on ISS's or Glass Lewis's radar or just don't have the sophistication where they've gone down this road of looking at pay versus performance."

"Keeping track of equity will be the biggest thing that's going to be new for companies, like what is the change in value from one year to the next," said Rittenhouse. "As companies are making this disclosure, it is their opportunity to tell a story."