Lindsey Hicks
About Lindsey Hicks
Lindsey Hicks (born 1979) serves as Vice President, Principal Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, and Assistant Treasurer of Putnam Premier Income Trust (PPT), with officer tenure beginning in 2024; her listed address is 3355 Data Drive, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 . She is a Franklin Templeton executive, disclosed as Controller, Fund Administration and Oversight, indicating a finance/controls background rather than portfolio management; detailed education is not disclosed . Fund context for her role: PPT had net assets of $360,158,654.72 as of December 31, 2024 and 95,567,536.775 common shares outstanding as of February 6, 2025, providing scale and operational oversight scope; performance metrics like TSR, revenue, or EBITDA are not applicable or not disclosed for a closed-end fund’s administrative officer .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Templeton | Controller, Fund Administration and Oversight | Not disclosed | Finance and fund administration/oversight responsibilities supporting fund reporting and controls |
External Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not disclosed | — | — | No external directorships or positions disclosed in PPT proxy filings |
Fixed Compensation
- Officer compensation details (base salary, target bonus %, actual bonus) are not disclosed in the PPT proxy. Officers are employees of Franklin Advisers or its affiliates; compensation for certain independent administrative staff is fixed by the Trustees and reimbursed to Franklin Advisers. Officers, including Lindsey Hicks, benefit indirectly from the management and investor servicing fees paid by the fund; the proxy does not provide individual salary or bonus amounts .
Performance Compensation
- Stock/option awards, performance-based incentives (RSUs/PSUs/options), strike prices, expiration, vesting schedules, and performance metric weightings/targets/payouts are not disclosed for fund officers in the PPT proxy .
Equity Ownership & Alignment
- Officer-level beneficial ownership breakdowns (direct/indirect, vested/unvested, options exercisable/unexercisable) are not provided for Lindsey Hicks in the proxy; Section 16(a) compliance narrative indicates required insider ownership reports were filed during the fiscal period but does not list individual holdings .
- Pledging/hedging of company stock by officers is not disclosed; no pledging by Lindsey Hicks is indicated in filings reviewed .
- Fund-level beneficial ownership context: PPT common shares outstanding totaled 95,567,536.775; notable institutional holders reported include Sit Investment Associates/Sit Fixed Income Advisors II with 21,695,065 shares (23.00%), and First Trust entities with 8,565,584 shares (8.74%); these are fund shareholders and not officer holdings .
- Trustee holdings are disclosed separately; officer holdings are not itemized in the proxy .
Employment Terms
- Officer service terms: each officer serves an indefinite term until resignation, retirement, death, or removal; no employment agreement, severance multiple, change-of-control trigger provisions, non-compete/non-solicit, garden leave, or post-termination consulting terms are disclosed for Lindsey Hicks in the proxy .
- No tax gross-ups, clawback provisions, deferred compensation elections, pension/SERP details, or perquisites are disclosed at the officer level in the proxy .
Investment Implications
- Pay-for-performance visibility is low: as a closed-end fund administrative officer, compensation is paid by Franklin Advisers and not disclosed at the individual level; there are no reported equity awards or ownership guidelines for Lindsey Hicks, limiting alignment analysis and tradable signals tied to insider incentives .
- Retention risk appears contained by the administrative nature of the role and indefinite term structure; however, absence of disclosed severance/change-of-control terms means limited visibility into transition economics or incentives under strategic events .
- Insider selling pressure signal is minimal due to lack of disclosed officer holdings and no identified Form 4 transactions in filings searched; Section 16 compliance narrative does not enumerate positions or transactions for Lindsey Hicks, constraining any timing-based trade signals .
- Governance oversight is robust at the board level (Audit, Nominating, Compensation, Pricing & Valuation committees comprised of Independent Trustees), but these relate to trustees and fund operations rather than officer compensation plans; thus, portfolio/trading signals from executive pay structure are limited in this fund context .