MADISON, Wis — CUNA Mutual Group paid its CEO Jeff Post $2.9 million last year, of which almost $1.6 million came as a bonus, according to documents filed with the Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance and Iowa Insurance Division.
Other leading CUNA Mutual executives in the compensation arena included David Lundgren, chief products officer, at roughly $816,000 and David Sargent, senior vice president for corporate strategy, at $645,000.
Although CUNA Mutual Group pays the executives from CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Company, CUMIS Insurance Society and CUNA Mutual Insurance Society, the three different companies report their compensation to different regulators and somewhat "arbitrarily" in terms of which company reports which part of the salaries, according to Post.
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Overall between the CUMIS Insurance Society and the CUNA Mutual Insurance Society, CMG paid its officers over $21.3 million in compensation in 2006, according to the Wisconsin Commissioner, which tracks those figures. Similar figures were not available for CUNA Mutual Life Insurance.
Directors for the company do not receive bonuses, but are compensated for their time. According to the Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner, 12 CMG directors made just over $407,000 as a group from just CUMIS and the CUNA Mutual Insurance Society, with additional money from CUNA Mutual Life Insurance. The records relating from CUNA Mutual Life Insurance appear to be incomplete and thus prevent totaling.
When interviewed about the compensation question, which the Office and Professional Employees International Union has raised, Post explained that the insurer conducts a rigorous process yearly to make sure its salaries are competitive with comparable insurance companies around the company and that its use of bonus was tied to the idea of pay for performance.
The so called "at risk" pay means that executives can do very well when CMG is doing well, but can take a hit in compensation if it does not. Post said that his pay could drop by 75% if the company does not do well financially.
Post also explained that pay for performance helped encourage the cultural shift he was cultivating in CUNA Mutual where junior executives and managers were encouraged and empowered to make decisions on their own without having to run them through higher ups.
One thing pay for performance means is that officers are paid for doing what they know to be right to solve problems rather than implementing what I tell them to do to solve problems, Post explained.
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