The Co-CEOs each received approximately $29.2 million in total compensation in 2025 — almost entirely in the form of equity awards (called Incentive Units) that vested immediately upon grant based on a fixed formula tied to management fee revenue, with no performance conditions linked to stock price, shareholder returns, or any other outcome-based measure. This structure means executives received large, growing equity grants every year while shareholders watched the stock fall 39% over the past year and trail the XLF financial sector fund by over 61 percentage points over three years — a direct disconnect between executive pay and shareholder experience that the policy requires a vote against. Compounding the concern, there is no independent compensation committee (pay for the top four executives is set by contractual formula, and pay for other named executives is set by those same executives), and shareholders only get to vote on executive pay every three years, limiting accountability.

Looking only at fees paid by the Company (not the funds it manages, which are separate entities not consolidated into OWL's financials), KPMG received $5,707,178 in core audit fees and $28,558 in audit-related fees, with zero tax or other fees — the non-audit ratio is less than 1% of audit fees, far below the 50% threshold that would raise independence concerns, and KPMG is a Big Four firm appropriate for a $15 billion company.