JPMORGAN CHASE & COJPM
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO Stock Compensation Disclosure
Employee share-based incentives
At December 31, 2025, approximately $1.0 billion (pretax) of compensation expense related to unvested awards had not yet been charged to net income. That cost is expected to be amortized into compensation expense over a weighted-average period of 1.6 years. The Firm does not capitalize any compensation expense related to share-based compensation awards to employees.
Employee share-based awards
In 2025, 2024 and 2023, JPMorganChase granted long-term share-based awards to certain employees under its LTIP. As of December 31, 2025, 77 million shares of common stock were available under the LTIP for issuance through May 2028. The LTIP is the only active plan under which the Firm is currently granting share-based incentive awards.
RSUs are awarded at no cost to the recipient upon their grant. Generally, RSUs are granted annually and vest at a rate of 50% after two years and 50% after three years and are converted into shares of common stock as of the vesting date. In addition, RSUs typically include full-career eligibility provisions, which allow employees to continue to vest upon voluntary termination based on age and/or service-related requirements, subject to post-employment and other restrictions. All RSU awards are subject to forfeiture until vested and contain clawback provisions that may result in cancellation under certain specified circumstances. Predominantly all RSUs entitle the recipient to receive cash payments equivalent to any dividends paid on the underlying common stock during the period the RSUs are outstanding.
Generally, performance share units (“PSUs”) are granted annually, and approved by the Firm’s Board of Directors, to members of the Firm’s Operating Committee under the variable compensation program. PSUs are subject to the Firm’s achievement of specified performance criteria over a three-year period. The number of PSUs that vest can range from zero to 150% of the grant amount. In addition, dividends that accrue during the vesting period are reinvested in dividend equivalent share units. PSUs and the related dividend equivalent share units are converted into shares of common stock after vesting.
Once the PSUs and dividend equivalent share units have vested, the shares of common stock that are delivered, after applicable tax withholding, must be retained for an additional holding period, for a total combined vesting and holding period of approximately to eight years from the grant date depending on regulations in certain countries.
Under the LTIP, stock appreciation rights (“SARs”) were granted with an exercise price equal to the fair value of JPMorganChase’s common stock on the grant date. SARs expire ten years after the grant date. There were no grants of SARs in 2025, 2024 or 2023.
The Firm separately recognizes compensation expense for each tranche of each award, net of estimated forfeitures, as if it were a separate award with its own vesting date. Generally, for each tranche granted, compensation expense is recognized on a straight-line basis from the grant date until the vesting date of the respective tranche, provided that the employees will not become full-career eligible during the vesting period. For awards with full-career eligibility provisions and awards granted with no future substantive service requirement, the Firm accrues the estimated value of awards expected to be awarded to employees as of the grant date without giving consideration to the impact of post-employment restrictions. For each tranche granted to employees who will become full-career eligible during the vesting period, compensation expense is recognized on a straight-line basis from the grant date until the earlier of the employee’s full-career eligibility date or the vesting date of the respective tranche.
The Firm’s policy for issuing shares upon settlement of employee share-based incentive awards is to issue either new shares of common stock or treasury shares. During 2025, 2024 and 2023, the Firm settled all of its employee share-based awards by issuing treasury shares.
Refer to Note 23 for further information on the classification of share-based awards for purposes of calculating earnings per share.
RSUs, PSUs and SARs activity
Generally, compensation expense for RSUs and PSUs is measured based on the number of units granted multiplied by the stock price at the grant date, and for SARs, is measured at the grant date using the Black-Scholes valuation model. Compensation expense for these awards is recognized in net income as described previously. The following table summarizes JPMorganChase’s RSUs, PSUs and SARs activity for 2025.
| RSUs/PSUs | SARs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Year ended December 31, 2025 | Number of units | Weighted-average grant date fair value | Number of awards | Weighted-average exercise price | Weighted-average remaining contractual life (in years) | Aggregate intrinsic value | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(in thousands, except weighted-average data, and where otherwise stated) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Outstanding, January 1 | 50,609 | $ | 150.41 | 2,250 | $ | 152.19 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Granted | 14,602 | 261.24 | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exercised or vested | (20,469) | 148.74 | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Forfeited | (2,182) | 176.47 | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Canceled | NA | NA | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Outstanding, December 31 | 42,560 | $ | 187.64 | 2,250 | $ | 152.19 | 5.7 | $ | 385,369 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exercisable, December 31 | NA | NA | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The total fair value of RSUs and PSUs that vested during the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, was $5.0 billion, $3.5 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively. There were no SARs exercised in 2025 and 2024. The total intrinsic value of SARs exercised during the year ended December 31, 2023 was $24 million.
Compensation expense
The Firm recognized the following noncash compensation expense related to its various employee share-based incentive plans in its Consolidated statements of income.
| Year ended December 31, (in millions) | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||||||||||
Cost of prior grants of RSUs, PSUs and SARs that are amortized over their applicable vesting periods | $ | 1,541 | $ | 1,622 | $ | 1,510 | ||||||||||||||
| Accrual of estimated costs of share-based awards to be granted in future periods, predominantly those to full-career eligible employees | 2,073 | 1,882 | 1,607 | |||||||||||||||||
Total noncash compensation expense related to employee share-based incentive plans | $ | 3,614 | $ | 3,504 | $ | 3,117 | ||||||||||||||
Tax benefits
Income tax benefits (including tax benefits from dividends or dividend equivalents) related to share-based incentive arrangements recognized in the Firm’s Consolidated statements of income for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, were $1.4 billion, $1.0 billion and $836 million, respectively.
Historical Timeline
| Fiscal Year | Filed | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Feb 13, 2026 | Showing above |
| 2024 | Feb 14, 2025 | |
| 2023 | Feb 16, 2024 | |
| 2022 | Feb 21, 2023 | |
| 2021 | Feb 22, 2022 | |
| 2020 | Feb 23, 2021 | |
| 2019 | Feb 25, 2020 | |
| 2018 | Feb 26, 2019 | |
| 2017 | Feb 27, 2018 | |
About Stock Compensation Disclosures
Stock-based compensation disclosures detail the equity awards granted to employees and executives — including stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), and performance shares — along with the valuation methods and assumptions used to expense them. This section reveals the true cost of talent retention and the alignment between management incentives and shareholder interests.
Key signals: total unrecognized compensation expense and its expected recognition period signal future earnings headwinds from already-granted awards. For stock options, examine Black-Scholes assumptions — expected volatility, risk-free rate, and expected term — as understating any of these reduces reported compensation expense. Compare stock compensation expense as a percentage of revenue against peers to assess dilution cost. Watch vesting schedules for acceleration clauses tied to change-of-control events. Performance-based awards with undemanding targets may indicate weak governance. Add back stock compensation to operating cash flow to calculate a more conservative free cash flow figure.