Prudential Financial Inc.'s Charles Lowrey was the highest-compensated CEO of a publicly traded U.S. life insurer in 2021, according to a data analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Lowrey's total compensation for the year was $19.0 million, consisting of $1.3 million in cash, $11.3 million in stocks and $6.4 million from a nonequity incentive plan. Lowrey's compensation was roughly 172x the median employee salary at Prudential Financial.
Lincoln, MetLife executives round out top 3
Lincoln National Corp.'s Dennis Glass was second on the list, earning approximately $16.6 million in 2021, consisting of $2 million in cash, $8.0 million in stocks, $1.9 million in options and $4.6 million from a nonequity incentive plan. Glass' compensation for 2021 was about 199x the median employee salary at Lincoln.
MetLife Inc. CEO Michel Khalaf was the most highly compensated CEO in 2020 but dropped to the third spot in 2021 even as the executive's compensation increased 14.2% year over year to $16.2 million. Khalaf's package was roughly 218x the median employee salary at MetLife and consisted of $1.6 million in cash, $8.7 million in stocks, $1.2 million in options and $4.7 million from a nonequity incentive plan.
CEOs from Voya Financial Inc., Principal Financial Group Inc. and Aflac Inc. were also among the list of highest-compensated executives.
Big jump for Citizens CEO
Citizens Inc. CEO Gerald Shields saw the highest year-over-year percentage increase in compensation in 2021. Shields earned about $900,000 in 2020; that rose 67.8% to $1.4 million in 2021.
Prudential Financial's Lowrey experienced the second-largest year-over-year increase in compensation among executives on this list at 37.3%. Principal Financial CEO Daniel Houston followed closely behind Lowrey with a year-over-year increase in compensation of 36.7%.
New role pays off
Jackson Financial Inc. CEO Laura Prieskorn was not granted any stock and options in 2020 as the executive had not yet been appointed company CEO. Prieskorn logged the largest year-over-year increase in stock and options in 2021, being awarded $5.3 million in stock and options that year.
Lowrey saw the second-largest year-over-year increase in stock and options. The executive was awarded $11.3 million in stock and options in 2021, up from $6.7 million in 2020.
