Our study of a group of 66 listed global (re)insurance companies found 51 CEOs within the cohort received higher remuneration last year compared with 2022.
The analysis shows Chubb’s Evan Greenberg was the highest-paid CEO in 2023 following a 10 percent year-on-year increase in his total compensation to $27.7mn, with 43 percent of his remuneration paid in cash.
In 2022, Greenberg ranked in third position, behind AIG’s Peter Zaffino and Marsh McLennan’s departing CEO Dan Glaser.
Zaffino’s 2022 package was boosted by a special restricted stock award of $50mn related to his new five-year contract, signed in November of that year.
In compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules on annual executive pay, the special restricted stock unit grant was reported in full at the date it was granted (despite only vesting in full at the end of Zaffino’s new employment contract on 10 November 2027), bringing his total remuneration to $75.3mn in 2022.
Meanwhile, Glaser had been rewarded with a 44 percent increase in compensation in his last year at the helm of Marsh McLennan, taking his total package to $30.9mn for 2022.
A more normalised picture in 2023 saw Greenberg return to the top spot, with Zaffino falling to second place with total “as reported” compensation of $24.6mn.
Meanwhile, John Doyle – who took over the top job at Marsh McLennan in 2023 – received $19.1mn in compensation, ranking in sixth place.
Third place in 2023 was left to Aon’s Greg Case, who advanced three positions following a 20.3 percent rise in annual remuneration.
Case – who recently agreed a two-year extension of his contract until at least 1 April 2028 – received total compensation of $23.7mn last year. Only 9.2 percent of Case’s package was paid in cash, the lowest proportion across our panel of CEOs, as in previous years.
RenaissanceRe CEO Kevin O’Donnell also ranked among the top 10 earners last year as his compensation rose from $10.1mn in 2022 to $23.6mn, after receiving a one-off “performance recognition award” following the acquisition of Validus in November 2023.
Outside the top 10, 2023 saw some significant increases in pay across smaller companies, with Global Indemnity’s Jay Brown, HCI Group’s Paresh Patel and Skyward Specialty’s Andrew Robinson all seeing their pay rise by more than 200 percent.
CEOs at the four London-listed (re)insurers were also among those that recorded the highest increases in compensation in 2023.
Peer group dynamics
AIG’s multi-year compensation arrangement with Zaffino was a significant factor in skewing the average CEO pay for US large commercial insurers in 2022.
Without the $50mn one-off stock award received that year, the average compensation across the cohort of six companies – which also includes Chubb, Berkshire Hathaway, CNA, The Hartford and Travelers – would have been $17.2mn.
This compares with $18.0mn for 2023, which represents an average CEO pay rise of 4.7 percent.
Average CEO pay was up across all other peer groups in 2023, with the exception of US specialty insurers, which saw a 4.0 percent decrease.
The fall in the latter was driven by a reduction in the remuneration of American Financial Group’s co-CEOs Craig Lindner and Carl Lindner, which fell over 20 percent in 2023 compared to the previous two years.
Enstar CEO Dominic Silvester also saw a significant fall in compensation in 2023, having received option awards worth $15.4mn the previous year following an amendment to the company’s joint share ownership agreement.
At the other end of the spectrum, the London and Florida cohorts saw the largest increase in CEO remuneration in 2023 in relative terms.
CEOs at the four London-listed (re)insurers saw their average pay more than double to $4.5mn in 2023, compared to $1.8mn in 2022.
Hiscox’s Aki Hussain received the highest pay rise, earning $4.7mn compared to $1.7mn the previous year, of which 82 percent was paid in cash.
Meanwhile, all three CEOs in the Florida cohort received higher “as reported” remuneration in 2023, with HCI Group’s Patel leading the charge with earnings of $3.7mn, 255 percent higher than the $1.0mn he received in 2022.
In absolute terms, the Bermuda cohort – which also includes Cayman Islands-based Greenlight Capital Re – saw the highest growth in average CEO compensation, rising to $11.0mn last year from $7.7mn in 2022.
This was driven by RenRe CEO O’Donnell’s one-off performance award, as well as a large increase in compensation for SiriusPoint’s Scott Egan, who received $10.3mn in his first full year at the helm, up from $5.8mn in 2022.
Greenlight Re’s Simon Burton also saw his remuneration more than double, ending his final year at the reinsurer with total pay of $5.9mn. He was replaced by Greg Richardson at the start of 2024.
Aggregate CEO pay across the 66 listed companies in The Insurer’s panel (presented below) stood at $553.0mn in 2023, of which $275.8mn corresponded to cash compensation.
This was 16.0 percent higher than the $476.8mn aggregate pay in 2022 excluding AIG’s $50mn stock award, or 17.0 percent higher if the comparison excludes AIG’s total compensation altogether. It also compares to 2.1 percent growth in 2022.
The acceleration in (re)insurance sector CEO pay growth in 2023 is consistent with what has been observed across the broader economy.
A recent study by executive compensation analysis firm Equilar, in partnership with the Associated Press, shows the median total compensation for S&P 500 CEOs rose by 12.6 percent to $16.3mn in 2023, up from a 0.9 percent increase in 2022.
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