A new study examining turnover among top executives found that corporate boards are three times more likely than a decade ago to pull the trigger on an underperforming chief executive officer. In fact, roughly a third of all CEOs who left their company last year were fired to forced to resign for performance related issues. Many analysts and investors are hoping that such high turnover rates will stay the norm, as shareholders are attempting to increase their powers through new SEC regulations.

The biggest problem is that many executives are now requesting large departure packages, even when they fail and are fired from the company. One recent study found that executives ousted from the 1,000 largest companies in 2006 received more than $1 billion in severence packages! Many analysts and investors are hoping that new SEC regulations forcing disclosure will help curb these excess expenditures while still forcing boards to react quickly to failing executives. This is a welcome change for shareholders who have been dealing with subpar leadership in the past...