It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. In this week’s edition of Your M&A and Corporate Partner, Connie Phelps analyzes recent news from JPMorgan that it has moved forward in its succession planning and shares lessons businesses can take away from the banking giant’s strategic moves.
Jamie Dimon is the longest-tenured big bank CEO and has led JPMorganChase for two decades. Rumors of who will succeed him have been swirling for years amid shifting timelines for his departure, but recent developments have shone a spotlight on the banking giant’s succession plans.
JPMorgan recently announced that Dimon-succession frontrunners Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh would be promoted to co-presidents of the company. Additionally, each appointee will also lead two of the bank’s largest businesses as CEOs – the Commercial & Investment Bank for Petno, and Consumer and Community Banking for Rohrbaugh.
Current frontrunners Petno and Rohrbaugh were among a select group of JPMorgan senior leaders reportedly on the short list to succeed Dimon, along with Marianne Lake, former CEO of Consumer and Community Banking who recently announced her departure from JPMorgan, and Jennifer Piepszak, who pulled her name from CEO consideration after being elevated to the bank’s COO in 2025.
The appointment of Petno and Rohrbaugh to co-presidents reporting directly to Dimon will give JPMorgan’s Board of Directors an opportunity to evaluate both candidates, but the succession timeline remains unclear. Contradictory reports from earlier this year quote Dimon as saying he plans to stay on as CEO for up to three years, or at least five years (a response he has been quoted on since 2018). This uncertainty has been a key point of contention in the bank’s succession planning since 2018 and has led to numerous senior leaders leaving the bank in pursuit of CEO roles elsewhere.
To stem the outflow of leadership while the succession plan continues to develop, SEC filings from June 2026 reveal that Petno, Rohrbaugh, Piepszak, and Mary Erdoes, CEO of Asset & Wealth Management, are set to each receive a one-time retention bonus totaling $100 million in Restricted Stock Units ($30 million each for Petno and Rohrbaugh, $20 million each for Piepszak and Erdoes). The RSUs are set to vest in three years if the bank achieves a three-year average return on tangible common equity of 12% for 2026 through 2028. The filing specifically states that the multimillion-dollar awards “are designed to incentivize leadership continuity.”
While it may be a few years before the public receives confirmation on who will ultimately succeed Dimon at JPMorgan, the last leg of the race for the top spot at the banking giant is well underway.
What Can Businesses Learn From This?
Succession planning is a critical piece of business planning, but it does not happen in a vacuum. Discussions around Dimon’s successor have lasted longer than members of the bank’s senior leadership (including previous frontrunners such as Lake), several of whom left for other CEO-level positions elsewhere. JPMorgan’s decision to incentivize key leaders with multimillion-dollar “golden handcuffs” at the same time it announced the promotion of its two final CEO candidates is a clear indication that the company wants to preserve its existing leadership while the Board of Directors decides its next move and Dimon determines how much longer he wants to lead the company.
Highly accomplished individuals, including the ones business leaders want to run their companies, may not wait around while companies work through a slow evaluation process, especially if they have other options. Succession planning and strategic employee retention plans can go hand in hand when shaping the long-term future of your business.
Have questions about planning for the future of your business? Contact M&A and Corporate lead Connie Phelps at cphelps@berenzweiglaw.com.
DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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