Departing Safeco President Gets Oversized Payout For Brief Tenure (SAFC)

When Jeffrey Roe joined Safeco (SAFC) last April as a co-president, the company hailed Roe’s "winning combination of strategic thinking and operational effectiveness." But on Feb. 2, Roe stepped down and according to this separation agreement filed yesterday, Safeco is paying him over $1 million for his brief tenure.

So how much is Roe’s brief tenure costing Safeco investors? First, there’s the $400K in severance, another $400K for Roe’s 2005 bonus and another $465K "in lieu of any incentive he might have received in 2006." There’s also another $14K thrown in for legal fees and health insurance payments.

Because there’s no employment agreement, it’s not clear how these figures relate to the former executive’s salary. Roe joined after the 2005 proxy came out, so there’s no numbers there, either. But what makes this particularly odd is that given the lack of employment agreement, Roe’s $1 million-plus payout for nine months on the job is basically for the hell of it.