Most governance failures are diagnosed late. The analytical framework that would have caught them was not in the room when the decision was made.
Touch Stone Executive Intelligence puts the framework in the room before the next board meeting. Subscribers receive the analytical depth and institutional intervention protocols that legacy comp consulting firms invoice through six-figure engagements, on a publication timeline that matches the news cycle, not the quarterly invoice.
What subscribers receive.
Three categories of analytical product, indexed to how boards actually decide.
1. Signal Intelligence
What changed in the regulatory, legal, and disclosure landscape, what it means, and what the proxy or fiduciary implications are. Published as white papers and intelligence briefs at the moment the signal lands. Answers the question: what changed.
2. Operational Frameworks
The diagnostics, decision matrices, narrative architectures, and documentation specifications that translate signal into board action. Published as Executive Playbooks, 100-plus pages each, with templates and worked examples. Answers the question: how do we think about it.
3. Live Application
Facilitated sessions where comp committees and senior governance teams apply the frameworks to their own peer group, their own legacy decisions, their own current proxy disclosure draft. Delivered as Executive Labs (open cohort, two half-day sessions) and Diagnostic Engagements (1:1, four weeks). Answers the question: what do we do, specifically, in our context.
Three excerpts from current Touch Stone analytical product.
How legacy 2021 pay decisions became 2026 voting inputs.
The 2026 ISS RDA window now spans five annualized years. Each year contributes 20 percent of the geometric mean. A retention award granted in 2021 to address pandemic-era volatility, rational at the time, is now a fixed input to the relative pay rank computation that drives the Say-on-Pay vote two proxy seasons from now. The mathematical anchor cannot be removed by waiting; the window rolls forward only as proxy cycles close. Issuers who believed pandemic-era compensation actions would exit the screen by 2024 are now confronting the same decisions weighted equally against decisions made under stable conditions.
The five-component disclosure architecture that survives the new framework.
The Long-Term Alignment narrative is not a defensive footnote. It is a structural element of the CD&A, written in five components and in this specific order: anchor statement of multi-year alignment philosophy, legacy decision review naming each 2021-2022 award with documented rationale, bridge year recalibration narrative covering 2023-2024 changes, current decision continuity, and forward commitment for 2027-2028. Reverse the order and the comp committee is read by ISS and Glass Lewis as inattentive to the framework that governs the vote. The order is the substance.
Three artifacts that must exist on the comp committee’s record before the proxy ships.
The Multi-Year Alignment Philosophy Memo, two to three pages, the comp committee’s stated philosophy ratified by the full board. The Legacy-Award Disposition Log, a schedule of every 2021-2022 compensation action now sitting inside the 5-year RDA window with decision rationale, alternatives considered, and outcome assessed. The Engagement-and-Disclosure Protocol, the named institutional holders engaged with, dates, topics, feedback or noted absence per ISS 2026 flexibility, and the disclosure decisions taken. Three documents. All on the board record. Dated before the proxy file date. The CD&A is the public document; these three are the evidence base.
Two subscription tiers, indexed to how your firm intends to engage with the work.
Single seat or board license. Annual renewal. Cancel any cycle.
Intelligence
- Every Touch Stone white paper at the moment of release (24-page plain-English briefings)
- The Friday Brief (subscriber-only weekly digest)
- Full archive of prior white papers
- Discount on Diagnostic Engagement
For board members and governance staff who want the signal intelligence and the white paper archive without the full operational layer.
Executive
- Everything in Intelligence
- Every Executive Playbook at release (110-page operational playbooks with diagnostics, templates, frameworks)
- Quarterly Executive Lab seat (live facilitated workshop on a current issue)
- Private board-director community on LinkedIn
- Priority access to Diagnostic Engagement scheduling
For boards and senior governance teams who want the full analytical product: signal intelligence, operational frameworks, live application, and the private community of fellow board directors.
Board licenses available. Intelligence Board License: $1,795 / 5 seats. Executive Board License: $9,500 / 12 seats. Custom seat counts: hello@touchstonepublishers.com.
Diagnostic Engagement.
For boards facing a current crisis or a high-stakes proxy cycle: a four-week 1:1 engagement that runs Touch Stone diagnostics on your specific peer group, your specific 2021 to 2026 compensation decisions, and (optional) your specific proxy disclosure draft. Custom analysis. Named engagement lead. Boardroom-ready deliverables. Documents that survive plaintiff-bar scrutiny and SEC review.
Subscribers at the Executive tier receive priority scheduling and a 15 percent discount on the Diagnostic Engagement fee.
$45,000
Base engagement, four weeks. Add proxy-disclosure draft review for $75,000 total.
The weekly analytical reading.
Every Friday at 4 PM Eastern, Touch Stone publishes the week’s most consequential governance signals as a layered analytical brief. Not a recap of the news cycle. A reading of which signals matter, why, and what they imply for board decisions in the next quarter. Subscribers at any tier receive the full version. Open-tier readers receive the summary.
The right next step is subscription at the tier that matches your intended engagement, or a Diagnostic Engagement directly. The wrong next step is starting the 2027 proxy cycle without the analytical bench in the room.
Touch Stone Executive is the governance intelligence imprint of Touch Stone Publishers. Briefings are research-grade analytical work prepared for board directors, compensation committees, and General Counsel. Not legal, accounting, or compensation advice. Consult qualified external advisors before acting on any specific recommendation.