Employee Stock Based Incentives Employee Stock-based Incentives (Policies)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

Share-based Compensation, Option and Incentive Plans Policy [Policy Text Block]

Restricted stock units (“RSUs”) are awarded at no cost to the recipient upon their grant. RSUs are generally granted annually and generally vest at a rate of 50% after two years and 50% after three years and convert into shares of common stock at the vesting date. In addition, RSUs typically include full-career eligibility provisions, which allow employees to continue to vest upon voluntary termination, subject to post-employment and other restrictions based on age or service-related requirements. All of these awards are subject to forfeiture until vested and contain clawback provisions that may result in cancellation prior to vesting under certain specified circumstances. 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 and, as such, are considered participating securities as discussed in Note 24 on page 301 of this Annual Report.

Under the LTI Plans, stock options and stock appreciation rights (“SARs”) have generally been granted with an exercise price equal to the fair value of JPMorgan Chase’s common stock on the grant date. The Firm typically awards SARs to certain key employees once per year; the Firm also periodically grants employee stock options and SARs to individual employees. The 2012, 2011 and 2010 grants of SARs to key employees vest ratably over five years (i.e., 20% per year) and contain clawback provisions similar to RSUs. The 2012, 2011 and 2010 grants of SARs contain full-career eligibility provisions. SARs generally expire ten years after the grant date.

The Firm separately recognizes compensation expense for each tranche of each award 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.