Parting is such sweet sorrow; When their boards of directors sour on them, getting the old heave-ho can be quite lucrative for some CEOs.

• Author: Maley, Frank

It was clear Ken Thompson was in trouble, just not how much. Shares of Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. had plunged, losing more than half their value as its 2006 purchase of mortgage lender Golden West dragged down earnings and the nation's housing crisis deepened. The company had slashed its dividend 41%. When he relinquished his title as chairman, it was ostensibly to concentrate on his role as CEO to right the company. Yet less than a month later, the board forced him to retire.

Two days later, the local newspaper did the obligatory examination of regulatory filings and concluded that he had walked away with $28 million. Once again, it seemed, a bungling chief executive had stumbled--or been pushed--out of a plummeting plane, pulled the ripcord on his golden parachute and floated into a comfy retirement.

But the stereotype doesn't quite fit. Most of that money was for producing enormous profits in previous years--more than $6 billion in 2007. Nearly three-quarters of the $28 million was stock he already owned--some of it bought with his money--or had been promised by the board. His retirement package didn't include a lot of new money, at least not for someone who had been making about $20 million a year in cash, bonus, stock, options and other compensation. Aside from accumulated pension benefits and deferred income, he got 16 months' salary--$1.45 million--accelerated vesting of stock and options he had been awarded, a company-paid office and assistant for up to three years and up to $50,000 to cover legal fees related to his departure.

Assessing the size of an exit package from company proxies is not an exact science. Often, as in Thompson's case, what's reported gets fine-tuned when a CEO leaves. To get an idea of how much CEOs at Tar Heel companies would make if they were terminated without cause--for performance rather than misconduct--BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA asked the Charlotte office of human-resources consultant Findley Davies Inc. to come up with an estimate for each of the state's 75 largest public companies. Reporting on termination pay is still new and varies from company to company. Some give only the company's total cost. Others break down termination pay into tables showing its components. Others give descriptions without dollar amounts, and still others have no plan.

The results can be found in the chart that starts on page 70. They represent the value of each CEO's termination package at the end of the latest fiscal year...