The president and chief executive of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX:SLF), Dean Connor, who took over the top job at the insurer in December, earned $5.1 million in total compensation last year.
According to Sun Life’s management proxy circular, filed ahead of its annual meeting this year, Connor was paid a salary of roughly $744,000 as well as $1.65 million in shares, $1.65 million in options and a $500,000 non-equity bonus.
The value of Connor’s pension for the year was $575,000 and he also received nearly $6,100 in other compensation.
The package compared with total compensation of $3.6 million in 2010 for Connor, who had been chief operating officer, including a salary of just over $650,000, $850,000 in shares, $850,000 in options and a non-equity bonus of just over $1 million and $5,600 in other compensation.
Connor’s pension for 2010 was worth $248,000.
Donald Stewart, who stepped down in December from the top job, took home $6.8 million for 2011, down from nearly $8.3 million in 2010.
Sun Life operates around the world and has major insurance and wealth management businesses in Canada and the United States.
The company recently began winding down some of its U.S. insurance business after mounting losses in that market, which helped produce red ink in the company’s latest quarter.
The company reported last month disappointing fourth-quarter and full-year results in which, among other things, operating net income for the year was just $104 million, down from almost $1.48 billion in 2010.
The Toronto-based company posted a net loss of $525 million or 90 cents per share for the quarter, reversing a net profit of $504 million or 84 cents a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected a loss of about 59 cents per share.
The quarter included a $635-million non-cash charge associated with changes to reserves for its variable annuity and segregated fund insurance contracts liabilities.